How to install a PowerShell module in an Azure Function

Question

I need the AWS module, which is available from the PS-Gallery but when I try to run the install step inside an Azure Function, it doesn\'t work. The -verbose argument flag i

Answer 1

Azure Functions support for PowerShell scripting is currently in an experimental stage. The following scenarios are supported:

1. Azure Functions will be able to support customers bringing their own modules. These modules will reside in a folder named modules that is located in the same directory where the PowerShell script resides. In the Kudu console for a sample Function, the directory structure would look like the following,

2. We will not support customers installing their own modules using the Install-Module cmdlet, however, customers may upload their modules into the modules folder.

3. All modules in the modules folder will be loaded automatically, so customers will not have to explicitly use the Import-Module cmdlet.

4. We will support script, binary and manifest modules. These modules will reside in a flat structure within the modules folder. An example layout is as follows:

In the context of what you are trying to achieve, here are some suggested steps to make sure that the AWSPowerShell module is loaded.

1. Install AWSPowerShell locally on your development machine. You will need to upload all the contents under \AWSPowerShell\3.3.5.0

2. Using the Kudu interface, upload the installed dependencies of AWSPowerShell to a modules folder residing in your Function's directory. To do so, open the the Portal UI for your Function App and click on the Function App Settings button.

3. Next, click on the Go to Kudu button to launch the Kudu console. You should see a snapshot similar to the following,

4. In the cmd console prompt, navigate to your Function's folder, create a modules directory and upload all the contents from \AWSPowerShell\3.3.5.0 to the modules directory.

You should end up with a modules folder that has a list of files similar to the snapshot below:

5. Run your Function. For instance, given the following script for my Function,

   if (-not (Get-Module -Name "AWSPowerShell")) { Write-Output "AWSPowerShell not installed"; } else { Write-Output "AWSPowerShell installed"; }

when executed, the log output is as follows,

2016-10-11T18:26:01.486 Function started (Id=582b69aa-6236-436d-81c5-c08ada8ae674)
2016-10-11T18:26:03.267 Loaded modules:
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSPowerShell.psd1
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSPowerShell.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.APIGateway.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ApplicationAutoScaling.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ApplicationDiscoveryService.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.AutoScaling.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.AWSMarketplaceCommerceAnalytics.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.AWSMarketplaceMetering.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.AWSSupport.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CertificateManager.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CloudFormation.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CloudFront.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CloudHSM.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CloudSearch.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CloudSearchDomain.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CloudTrail.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CloudWatch.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CloudWatchEvents.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CloudWatchLogs.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CodeCommit.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CodeDeploy.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CodePipeline.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CognitoIdentity.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.CognitoIdentityProvider.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ConfigService.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.Core.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.DatabaseMigrationService.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.DataPipeline.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.DeviceFarm.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.DirectConnect.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.DirectoryService.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.DynamoDBv2.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.EC2.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ECR.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ECS.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ElastiCache.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ElasticBeanstalk.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ElasticFileSystem.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ElasticLoadBalancing.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ElasticLoadBalancingV2.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ElasticMapReduce.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.Elasticsearch.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ElasticTranscoder.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.GameLift.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.IdentityManagement.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ImportExport.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.Inspector.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.IoT.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.IotData.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.KeyManagementService.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.Kinesis.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.KinesisAnalytics.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.KinesisFirehose.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.Lambda.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.MachineLearning.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.MobileAnalytics.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.OpsWorks.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.RDS.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.Redshift.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.Route53.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.Route53Domains.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.S3.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.SecurityToken.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.ServiceCatalog.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.SimpleEmail.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.SimpleNotificationService.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.SimpleSystemsManagement.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.SimpleWorkflow.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.Snowball.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.SQS.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.StorageGateway.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.WAF.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSSDK.WorkSpaces.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/log4net.dll
/AWSPowerShell/modules/AWSPowerShellCompleters.psm1
2016-10-11T18:27:21.265 AWSPowerShell installed
2016-10-11T18:27:21.464 Function completed (Success, Id=582b69aa-6236-436d-81c5-c08ada8ae674)

Note: The Function takes a while to complete due to the fact that all the modules are loaded at runtime.

It is important to bear in mind that unlike most IaaS setup, an Azure Function is executing in a multi-tenant environment. As such, there remains the following known caveats:

1. Our infrastructure guards against any Function executing low-level APIs that we deem as security risks (e.g. interactive modes, host credentials access, registry edits, and etc.). If the PowerShell script or module you are using calls any of those blocked APIs, you will not be able to execute those workloads in Functions. Nonetheless, our goal is to support as many scenarios as possible, so we will prioritize unblocking scenarios based on the demand volume from our customers.

2. We currently have PowerShell version 4.0 and Azure PowerShell 1.4 installed in our infrastructure. We will upgrade these versions soon. As we add more support for PowerShell in Azure Functions, module suites may be upgraded or added over time. There is a remote possibility that these pre-installed modules may conflict with your existing modules.

Answer 2

What about updating the azurerm powershell modules, there are a lot of modules to get to the latest version 4.1.0 which if we upload will be a issue to put in a flat directory.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\PowerShell\ResourceManager\AzureResourceManager

contains 46 folders.

Answer 3

You need to make sure you look for all modules, not just the loaded modules by adding -listavailable to the get-module call.

You may need to bootstrap nuget for install-module to work in non-interactive environments. The command is: Get-PackageProvider -Name nuget -ForceBootstrap

If the repository you are installing from is not trusted, you may need to force the install-module command.

Example

[Console]::WriteLine("Powershell Timer trigger function executed at:$(get-date)");

if (-not (Get-Module -listavailable -Name "AWSPowerShell")) {
    [Console]::WriteLine("AWSPowerShell not installed");
    Install-Module -Name AWSPowerShell -Scope CurrentUser -ErrorAction Continue -Verbose -force
}

if (-not (Get-Module -listavailable -Name "AWSPowerShell")){
    [Console]::WriteLine("AWSPowerShell install step failed");
}

FYI: [Console]::WriteLine is not considered a good practice in PowerShell for automated scripts. Try to stick to Write-Verbose you can force it like this Write-Verbose -message 'my message' -verbose

Answer 4

I suspect the reason is that you're not specifying a location for the modules to be loaded from. The current $env:PSModulePath is listed as

WindowsPowerShell\Modules;
D:\Program Files (x86)\WindowsPowerShell\Modules; D:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\;
d:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\MpProvider\;
D:\Program Files\Microsoft Message Analyzer\PowerShell\;
D:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\;
D:\Program Files (x86)\MicrosoftSDKs\Azure\PowerShell\ResourceManager\AzureResourceManager\;
D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\PowerShell\ServiceManagement\;
D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\PowerShell\Storage\

I can't entirely figure out where it is referencing the first from, so I couldn't put them there. So I put this together instead

$env:PSModulePath = $env:PSModulePath + ";d:\home\modules\"

import-module azured 
$out = Deploy-Template
[Console]::WriteLine($out)
Out-File -Encoding Ascii $Env:res -inputObject $out

This loads the module (located at d:\home\modules) and works as expected

The reason that Get-PackageProvider -Name nuget -ForceBootstrap doesn't work, is that the PackageManagement module isn't installed. However nuget is already installed. You would need to interact with kudu directly to install packages that way.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one being driven slightly nuts by functions though ;)