Retrieve the Function Host Keys while deploying an ARM template

Todays conundrum: As I deploy a new Function Application, I need a simple methodology to retrieve the Host Keys for the function application so that I validate the deployment has been successful; and potentially pass on the key to related services, for example API Management.

As before, I am leveraging templates, and will stay cloud native; this time depending on the functions Output ability to present the keys.

Dynamically appending Tags to our ARM template with the union function

Todays conundrum: As I am leveraging templates, there will always be some standard tags I require to implement within the template, but I also require to provide additional tags as a parameter to be appended with the deployment. My objective is to set up tags within an ARM template in accordance with good governance and the Cloud adoption framework. Solution ARM Template functions to the rescue. Todays salvation is called union, which you can learn more about on the actual [reference site][https://docs.

Updating Pester, May need more than a Force!

I spend the majority of my time working on my Windows machines, and for many scenarios, I find it difficult to complain. However, when Windows decides to dig the boot in and not co-operative; usually is when I grab my Mac Book and get the work done. However, running aware from the problem rarely is a good fix for the issue; My latest battle has been Pester. The testing framework builds on Powershell, and by the grace of God, now shipped as part of the Windows 10 operating system.

Starting Services on Linux at boot

With a multitude of Raspberry PI’s deployed around the house, each taking a dedicated duty in ensuring that services run transparently; It is not uncommon for me to discover the initialization scripts designed to have these services auto start at boot is not working. The content of this post is a reference for different methods which can be employed to resolve these stubborn daemons; which always are to fond of reappearing after an unplanned outage; or what is more commonly referred to as a Power Failure!

Integrate Azure Directly into your work flow with VS Code

After years living in tools like Visual Studio, and PowerShell; Currently my primary landing ground is Visual Studio Code. With my target audience firmly defined as Azure; In this post I am going to share my notes on how to get these two tools working harmonisly; and to make the experience a little richer, we will also mount the underlying Cloud Drive File Share of the Azure Cloud Shell on our local computer as a PowerShell Drive (PSDrive).

Sorting out the chaos of managing multiple calendars, and putting assistants to work

Assumingly I am not alone, when we sit down as a family and talk about our day, and the plan for the next days or the weekend; only to realize that we have some real scheduling issues; because you totally forgot that you would take the children to an event; while your partner had a long-standing appointment with the hairdresser. Letting this happen once or twice, is forgivable, but happing on a regular basis; is the recipe for a lousy dispute; that we do not need.

Defining your Policy’s as Code in Azure Resource Manager Templates

My colleagues and friends Tao Yang , and Stanislav Zhelyazkov have both recently posts interesting topics on how to implement your Azure Policy as Code which I strongly recommend you take a few moments to review Using ARM Templates to deploy azure policy definitions that require input parameters Defining input parameters for policy definitions in ARM Templates Improving Readability Both of these topics address the core of the challenges we face when approaching policy as an Infrastructure as Code problem.

Implementing Comments on a Static Site

At this point we are almost ready to go live with our site, however, one of the cornerstones to growing and sharing is communication. Wordpress In the world of Wordpress, this was a standard core feature, which leveraged the fact that the pages were rendered on demand from a backend database. In this scenario, the same approach is offered to maintain a commenting platform. However, as I noted earlier; given that Wordpress powers a very large portion of the blogging surface of the internet; it is an obvious target for hacking, just refer to the CVS database for a glimpse of what this looks like in reality.

Using pipelines for flow static site content between markdown and foundation

With the heavy lifting done in creating the site building mechanics and a solid foundation to build and share upon; our final objective is to automate the process of connecting these two stages. Release Pipeline Technically the goal we are speaking about is the Release Pipeline which will take the artefact (our site .ZIP file) that we created in the Build Pipeline in our previous topic Constructing a new Home with Jekyll and Azure DevOps; and publish this to our storage account.

A quick snoop around this new site will expose a little hole which I am working on addressing in batches. All the original content and images which were hosted on the previous incarnation of this site have been converted to markdown ready to republish. However, Prior to this happening, I have decided to update the taxonomy of the site, to recategorise and retag all the original content to fall into a more logical structure.