Connect

As a prerequisite, make sure that you installed the correct PowerShell modules and versions:

Install-Module -Name 'AzureRm.Bootstrapper' -Scope CurrentUser
Install-AzureRmProfile -profile '2017-03-09-profile' -Force -Scope CurrentUser
Install-Module -Name AzureStack -RequiredVersion 1.2.9 -Scope CurrentUser

This tool set allows you to connect to an Azure Stack PoC (Proof of Concept) instance from an external personal laptop. You can then access the portal or log into that environment via PowerShell.

Instructions below are relative to the .\Connect folder of the AzureStack-Tools repo.

Import-Module .\AzureStack.Connect.psm1

VPN to Azure Stack Proof of Concept

The Connect to Azure Stack document describes ways to connect to your Azure Stack Proof of Concept environment.

One method is to establish a split tunnel VPN connection to an Azure Stack PoC. This allows your client computer to become part of the Azure Stack PoC network system and therefore resolve Azure Stack endpoints.

The tool will also download root certificate of the targeted Azure Stack PoC instance locally to your client computer. This will ensure that SSL sites of the target Azure Stack installation are trusted by your client when accessed from the browser or from the command-line tools.

To connect to Azure Stack PoC via VPN, first locate the external BGP-NAT01 address of the target installation. If you specified a static IP for the BGP-NAT during deployment of the Azure Stack PoC, then use it in the connection example below.

If you did not specify a static IP then the BGP-NAT was configured with DHCP. In that case, read the below section to obtain your BGP-NAT VM IP by using the IP address of the Azure Stack PoC host (which should be known to you after deployment).

The commands below need to access the Azure Stack PoC host computer and Azure Stack CA, so they need to be trusted hosts in PowerShell. Run PowerShell as administrator and modify TrustedHosts as follows.

# Add Azure Stack PoC host to the trusted hosts on your client computer
Set-Item wsman:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value "<Azure Stack host address>" -Concatenate
Set-Item wsman:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value mas-ca01.azurestack.local -Concatenate

For the VPN connection, use the admin password provided at the time of the Azure Stack deployment.

$Password = ConvertTo-SecureString "<Admin password provided when deploying Azure Stack>" -AsPlainText -Force

Then connect your client computer to the environment as follows.

# Create VPN connection entry for the current user
Add-AzureStackVpnConnection -ServerAddress <NAT IP> -Password $Password

# Connect to the Azure Stack instance. This command can be used multiple times.
Connect-AzureStackVpn -Password $Password

Obtain the NAT IP address with the Azure Stack PoC host address

This command is helpful if you do not immediately know the NAT IP of the Azure Stack PoC you are trying to connect to. You must know the host address of your Azure Stack PoC.

$natIp = Get-AzureStackNatServerAddress -HostComputer "<Azure Stack host address>" -Password $Password

Configure Azure Stack PowerShell Environment

One method of deploying templates and interacting with your Azure Stack PoC is to access it via PowerShell.

See the Azure Stack Install PowerShell article to download and install the correct PowerShell modules for Azure Stack.

AzureRM cmdlets can be targeted at multiple Azure clouds such as Azure China, Government, and Azure Stack.

To target your Azure Stack instance as a tenant, an AzureRM environment needs to be registered as follows. The ARM endpoint below is the tenant default for a one-node environment.

Add-AzureStackAzureRmEnvironment -Name AzureStack -ArmEndpoint "https://management.local.azurestack.external" 

To create an administrator environment use the below. The ARM endpoint below is the administrator default for a one-node environment.

Add-AzureStackAzureRmEnvironment -Name AzureStackAdmin -ArmEndpoint "https://adminmanagement.local.azurestack.external" 

Connecting to your environment requires that you obtain the value of your Directory Tenant ID. For Azure Active Directory environments provide your directory tenant name:

$TenantID = Get-DirectoryTenantID -AADTenantName "<mydirectorytenant>.onmicrosoft.com" -EnvironmentName AzureStackAdmin 

For ADFS environments use the following:

$TenantID = Get-DirectoryTenantID -ADFS -EnvironmentName AzureStackAdmin 

After registering the AzureRM environment, cmdlets can be easily targeted at your Azure Stack instance. For example:

Login-AzureRmAccount -EnvironmentName "AzureStack" -TenantId $TenantID

Similarly, for targeting the administrator endpoints:

Login-AzureRmAccount -EnvironmentName "AzureStackAdmin" -TenantId $TenantID

Register Azure RM Providers on new subscriptions

If you are intending to use newly created subscriptions via PowerShell, CLI or direct API calls before deploying any templates or using the Portal, you need to ensure that resource providers are registered on the subscription. To register providers on the current subscription, do the following.

Register-AllAzureRmProviders

To register all resource providers on all your subscriptions after logging in using Add-AzureRmAccount do the following. Note that this can take a while.

Register-AllAzureRmProvidersOnAllSubscriptions

These registrations are idempotent and can be run multiple times. If provider has already been registered, it will simply be reported in the output.