Azure Power Shell is an authenticated, browser-accessible way to interact with Azure resources from the Azure portal. Cloud Shell is authenticated, meaning once you have access to your Azure portal you also have access to Cloud Shell. It allows you to use either Bash or Powershell in combination with the Azure CLI to programmatically interact with most Azure resources quickly and without having to set up an environment. Companies use Cloud Shell because of the ease it offers in managing Azure resources.

The playground is a safe and secure sandbox environment for you to explore your own ideas, follow along with Cloud Academy courses, or answer your own questions all without the need to install any software on your local machine. The extended duration of this playground provides you with ample time to play to your heart's content. Feel free to experiment with using the Cloud Shell to create, view, and manage resources from the CLI, as within this lab you'll have the access needed to create and view virtual machine and virtual network resources. You'll also find that a virtual network has been created under your resource group for you to interact with or launch a virtual machine in. Have fun learning!

Intended Audience

This lab is intended for:

• Azure administrators
• Cloud engineers and solutions architects
• Anyone with a need to interact with Azure through a CLI

Prerequisites

You should be familiar with:

• Basic familiarity with the Azure Portal is helpful, but not required
• Basic familiarity with Powershell or Bash is helpful, but not required

Updates

August 31st, 2020 - Added instructions for signing in to the Portal

July 16th, 2020 - Allowed creation of virtual machines with managed disks