Azure CLI Automation: Start and Stop Arc VMs on Azure Stack HCI

In this sample, you'll learn how to start and stop Arc VMs on Azure Stack HCI using Azure CLI.

Short URL to this page: https://aka.ms/ashci/automate-cli/arc-vm

Problem

Performing multiple tasks on many HCI clusters through Azure Portal become an effort intensive and time-consuming process, especially when these tasks needs to be frequently repeated.
Organization’s skilled administrators prefer Linux based Bash scripting to automate tasks from Azure. Otherwise, they require training in ARM templates or Azure PowerShell, this need time and delays deployment.

Example scenario

Suppose you’re responsible for setting up and managing VMs on Azure Stack HCI cluster to support your internal teams.

One day, the billing team asks you to start a VM at 6PM and shutdown by 9PM. However, the HCI clusters are nearly full capacity.

Through internal discussions, you learn that some teams do not use the VMs from 5PM to 9AM. So, your idea is to shutdown those idle VMs to fulfill the billing team’s requirement.

You want to find a way to automate this process.

Solution

Author Azure CLI script. Azure CLI syntax is like Bash scripting
Use Azure Cloud Shell’s Bash environment.
Run Azure CLI script to automate the tasks.

Steps

Prerequisites

To work through the sample, you'll need an Azure account, and Arc-enabled VMs deployed.

You'll also need the following installed locally:

Visual Studio Code
The Azure Account extension for VS Code.
On Windows: Requires Node.js 6 or later to be installed (https://nodejs.org).

Install the below Azure CLI extensions:

To set up Arc-VM Management Client on Azure Stack HCI, run the command az extension add --name azurestackhci

Create scripts to start and stop VMs

To manage virtual machines, open Visual Studio Code Explorer and at the root of your project folder, create hci-vm-start.sh and hci-vm-stop.sh.

To stop the virtual machines, save your changes to the file hci-vm-stop.sh. Your file should look like this example:

#!/bin/bash

# Exit immediately if a command exits with a non-zero status
set -e

# Treat unset variables as an error when substituting
set -u

# Consider failure of any part of a pipe as a whole pipe failure
set -o pipefail

# Log file
logfile="./output.log"

# Assigning default values for variable
subscription=${1:-"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"} # Replace with your subscription ID
resourcegroup=${2:-"hcicluster-rg"} # Replace with your resource group name
vmNames=("vmname1" "vmname2" "vmname3") # Replace with your VM names

# Counters for report
total_vms=${#vmNames[@]}
successful_shutdowns=0
skipped_vms=0

# Ensure that the Azure CLI is logged in and set to the correct subscription
echo "Ensuring that the Azure CLI is logged in and set to the correct subscription" | tee -a $logfile
if az account show --output none; then
    echo "Setting subscription to ${subscription}" | tee -a $logfile
    az account set --subscription "${subscription}" || { echo "Failed to set subscription. Exiting." | tee -a $logfile; exit 1; }
else
    echo "Azure CLI not logged in. Please log in and try again." | tee -a $logfile
    exit 1
fi

# Iterate over VMs
for vm in "${vmNames[@]}"; do
    # Check if VM name is null or empty
    if [ -z "$vm" ]; then
        echo "Skipping VM because its name is null or empty."
        skipped_vms=$((skipped_vms+1))
        continue
    fi

    # Querying the list of extensions for the specified cluster
    echo "Checking if VM ${vm} exists" | tee -a $logfile
    vmIds=$(az azurestackhci virtualmachine list --resource-group ${resourcegroup} --query "[?name=='${vm}'].id" --output tsv) || { echo "Failed to get VM list. Exiting."| tee -a $logfile; exit 1; }
    if [ -z "$vmIds" ]
    then
        echo "Skipping VM ${vm} because it does not exist" | tee -a $logfile
        skipped_vms=$((skipped_vms+1))
        continue
    fi

    echo "VM ${vm} exists" | tee -a $logfile

    echo "Stopping VM ${vm}" | tee -a $logfile
    az azurestackhci virtualmachine stop --name "${vm}" --resource-group "${resourcegroup}"|| { echo "Failed to stop VM ${vm}. Exiting."| tee -a $logfile; exit 1; }
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "Successfully shut down VM '$vm'."
        successful_shutdowns=$((successful_shutdowns+1))
    else
        echo "Failed to shut down VM '$vm'."
        skipped_vms=$((skipped_vms+1))
    fi
done

# Print report
echo "---------------------------------------------------"
echo "Total VMs: $total_vms"
echo "Successfully shut down: $successful_shutdowns"
echo "Skipped: $skipped_vms"

To start the virtual machines, save your changes to the file hci-vm-start.sh. Your file should look like this example:

#!/bin/bash

# Exit immediately if a command exits with a non-zero status
set -e

# Treat unset variables as an error when substituting
set -u

# Consider failure of any part of a pipe as a whole pipe failure
set -o pipefail

# Log file
logfile="./output.log"

# Assigning default values for variable
subscription=${1:-"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"} # Replace with your subscription ID
resourcegroup=${2:-"hcicluster-rg"} # Replace with your resource group name
vmNames=("vmname1" "vmname2" "vmname3") # Replace with your VM names

# Counters for report
total_vms=${#vmNames[@]}
successful_started=0
skipped_vms=0

# Ensure that the Azure CLI is logged in and set to the correct subscription
echo "Ensuring that the Azure CLI is logged in and set to the correct subscription" | tee -a $logfile
if az account show --output none; then
    echo "Setting subscription to ${subscription}" | tee -a $logfile
    az account set --subscription "${subscription}" || { echo "Failed to set subscription. Exiting." | tee -a $logfile; exit 1; }
else
    echo "Azure CLI not logged in. Please log in and try again." | tee -a $logfile
    exit 1
fi

# Iterate over VMs
for vm in "${vmNames[@]}"; do
    # Check if VM name is null or empty
    if [ -z "$vm" ]; then
        echo "Skipping VM because its name is null or empty."
        skipped_vms=$((skipped_vms+1))
        continue
    fi

    # Querying the list of extensions for the specified cluster
    echo "Checking if VM ${vm} exists" | tee -a $logfile
    vmIds=$(az azurestackhci virtualmachine list --resource-group ${resourcegroup} --query "[?name=='${vm}'].id" --output tsv) || { echo "Failed to get VM list. Exiting."| tee -a $logfile; exit 1; }
    if [ -z "$vmIds" ]
    then
        echo "Skipping VM ${vm} because it does not exist" | tee -a $logfile
        skipped_vms=$((skipped_vms+1))
        continue
    fi

    echo "VM ${vm} exists" | tee -a $logfile

    echo "Starting VM ${vm}" | tee -a $logfile
    az azurestackhci virtualmachine start --name "${vm}" --resource-group "${resourcegroup}"|| { echo "Failed to start VM ${vm}. Exiting."| tee -a $logfile; exit 1; }
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "Successfully started VM '$vm'."
        successful_started=$((successful_started+1))
    else
        echo "Failed to starting VM '$vm'."
        skipped_vms=$((skipped_vms+1))
    fi
done

# Print report
echo "---------------------------------------------------"
echo "Total VMs: $total_vms"
echo "Successfully started: $successful_started"
echo "Skipped: $skipped_vms"

Start Azure Cloud Shell instance via VS Code

To sign in, go to View > Command Pallete and type Azure: Sign In. There are mulitple commands that may be used to sign in to Azure.
Click the dropdown arrow in the terminal view and select Azure Cloud Shell (Bash)
If this is your first time using the Cloud Shell, the following notification will appear prompting you to set it up.
The Cloud Shell will load in the terminal view once you've finished configuring it.

Upload the file to Azure Cloud Shell

To upload hci-vm-start.sh, go to View > Command Pallete and type Azure: Upload to Cloud Shell
Select the file hci-vm-start.sh
Repeat the same process to upload hci-vm-stop.sh

Run the script

Change the script permission to execute

chmod +x hci-vm-start.sh hci-vm-stop.sh

To stop the virtual machines, run the shell script:
```
bash hci-vm-stop.sh
```
To start the virtual machines, run the shell script:
```
bash hci-vm-start.sh
```

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README.md

README.md

Azure CLI Automation: Start and Stop Arc VMs on Azure Stack HCI

Problem

Example scenario

Solution

Steps

Prerequisites

Create scripts to start and stop VMs

Start Azure Cloud Shell instance via VS Code

Upload the file to Azure Cloud Shell

Run the script

Files

README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

Azure CLI Automation: Start and Stop Arc VMs on Azure Stack HCI

Problem

Example scenario

Solution

Steps

Prerequisites

Create scripts to start and stop VMs

Start Azure Cloud Shell instance via VS Code

Upload the file to Azure Cloud Shell

Run the script