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Azure Automation: A Comprehensive Recap of 2022 and What’s Coming

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: New blog articles in Microsoft Community Hub.

There has been a significant acceleration in digital transformation of the IT environments, with organizations moving their workloads to the cloud and benefitting from consolidated management and operations of their otherwise intricate and dispersed IT infrastructure. While digital spending rapidly increased, organizations are now focused on optimizing costs. Infrastructure automation is being prioritized to maintain efficient operations (cost savings, streamlined operations, and accurate results) across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.

 

Azure Automation offers a comprehensive platform for cloud-based execution of PowerShell & Python scripts as automation runbooks, to manage Azure and hybrid environments. Customers utilize automation jobs for a variety of purposes, including cost optimization through resource life cycle management, reliable orchestration of dependent mission-critical jobs that otherwise require manual tracking, and other common enterprise IT operations such as periodic maintenance (defragmentation, scaling, etc.). By automating these tasks, customers increase efficiency, reduce costs, and free up operational time and resources for core business initiatives. You can read some of the common automation scenarios here.

 

Azure Automation is focusing on providing a modern, secure, and a reliable engine allowing maximum reuse of existing scripts proven to reliably perform IT operational tasks, be it for the environment or guest applications on the VMs.

 

In this blog post, we shall go on a retrospective journey and discuss the enhancements done in Azure Automation since 2022 and provide a sneak peek into the year ahead.

 

Automation Accounts - Process Automation 

 

 

 

 

 

Retirements

There are a few retirements announced in 2022 and retiring this year and next. We encourage you to take immediate action and move on to the latest and more secure features. 

Retiring Feature

Retirement Date

Feature Replacement

Run As Accounts

30 September 2023

 

Managed Identity

(Announcement blog here)

Desired state configuration VM extension for Linux

30 September 2023

 

Extension-based User Hybrid Runbook Worker

(Announcement blog here)

Agent-based User Hybrid Runbook Worker

31 August 2024

 

Azure Automanage Machine configuration

(Announcement blog here)

 

You can find all the announcements and updates in the Azure Automation what's new article.

 

 

Partner Solutions 

We have new partner solutions added to the Azure marketplace from Kelverion.

 

No-Code Automation for Azure

Kelverion’s no-code automation offering is The Runbook Suite which provides a rich no code graphical authoring, underpinned by the Microsoft PowerShell framework running in Azure Automation.  The image-based approach uses a click and configure method, making the creation of automation runbooks simpler using a drag and drop, code-free approach and doesn’t require advanced coding knowledge, however the tool does have the capability to embed code should the user wish – best of both worlds for scripting experts as well as users who like the No-code approach.

View the no code authoring offer for Azure Automation on the Azure Marketplace.

 

Self-Service Portal for Automation

The Automation Portal is an easy to implement lightweight Azure Web App which provides a Self-Service Portal dedicated to automating IT service requests, offering a versatile interface that can drive automation processes and also now has a Mobile App for on-the-go automated request interaction. This offer provides the Automation Portal as a standalone product to which users can interface from any existing automation platform of choice, whether that be Azure Automation, System Center Orchestrator, Logic Apps, Azure Functions, Power Automate or any other system.

View the Automation Portal on the Azure Marketplace.

 

Use these solutions to complement your Azure Automation environment by Pro integrators and developers, IT professionals who would want to use low code/no code option to author runbooks.

 

Now, let's shift our focus to other solution areas that are included in the Azure Automation service and see how they are expected to evolve in the future -

 

State Configuration

A newer version of State Configuration is now available called as Azure Automanage Machine Configuration. Machine configuration is the latest implementation of functionality that has been provided by Azure Automation State Configuration. It also includes the most requested features from customer feedback.

When possible, you should plan to move your content and machines to the new service. There is a detailed guidance available on developing a migration strategy from Azure Automation to machine configuration. For more information , see Azure Automation state configuration to machine configuration migration planning.

 

Azure Update Management

Azure Update Management  manages operating system updates for Azure virtual machines (Windows and Linux), and machines (physical or VMs) off-Azure. with no dependency on Automation account and Log Analytics workspace.

Watch out this space for more announcements soon around the general availability of the solution and migration plan for Azure Update management to Update management Center.

 

Change tracking & Inventory.

Change Tracking & Inventory is the service that tracks changes in virtual machines hosted in Azure, on-premises, and other cloud environments to help you pinpoint operational and environmental issues. It alerts customers to changes in software data, services, daemons, and files for Azure and non-Azure VMs.

At present, Change Tracking and Inventory leverages the Log Analytics Agent. However, this agent is scheduled to be retiring by August 31, 2024. In accordance with this retirement plan, an updated version of the Change Tracking and Inventory service is currently in Preview, based on the Azure Monitor agent (AMA). AMA agent provides you with more security and other feature benefits. We strongly recommend utilizing the Azure Monitor Agent-based service as the new supporting platform. For more information, see change tracking and inventory using Azure Monitoring Agent.

Watch out this space for more announcements soon around the general availability of the solution.

 

 

Well, now you must be wondering why these solutions are moving off Azure Automation?

In the past, these scenarios were bundled together with Azure Automation. However, each of them serves a distinct purpose. Our aim is to separate them from Azure Automation and offer dedicated services for specific use cases. Going forward, Azure Automation will focus solely on process automation for infrastructure management and orchestration across Azure and hybrid environments (both on and off Azure). This change will provide a more tailored & native experience for each service. Additionally, this approach enables us to focus better on the unique requirements and demands of each solution, resulting in better overall experience for our customers and a design that is fit for purpose.

 

What’s coming next.

Our goal is to make this service as the one-stop-shop for infrastructure automation managing Azure resources, as well as in-guest management of Azure virtual machines and off-Azure machines. Our focus for this year would revolve around below key themes -

 

 

 

 

We encourage you to continue contributing to the PowerShell or Python scripts available for Azure Automation in our GitHub organization to grow the Azure Automation community by sharing the amazing work you have been doing with the runbooks. See Azure Automation Runbooks moving to GitHub.

 

There's still a lot in the backlog. We're always looking for ways to learn more about your challenges and how Azure Automation can help you better automate your tasks. Reach out to us at AskAzureAutomation@microsoft.com.

 

 

That's about it, Happy Automation!

 

Learn more about Azure Automation

 

 

 

 

 

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