Alex-wdy shares comprehensive updates from Microsoft Ignite 2025, focusing on Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, and new AI-driven features, including security and quality improvements.

Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell: Ignite 2025 Update

Microsoft announced major improvements to Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell for 2025, emphasizing quality, security, and AI-driven features. This update brings new capabilities, feature enhancements, and security standards compliance for cloud automation practitioners.

Key Investment Areas

  • Quality and Security: Focused upgrades, including enforcement of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and mitigation of CVEs, underpin the commitment to secure automation.
  • User Experience: Features and upgrades designed to simplify usage, improve error handling, and bolster reliability.
  • AI Integration: New ‘What-If’ and ‘Export Bicep’ parameters leverage AI to assist with previewing infrastructure changes and auto-generating Bicep templates, streamlining infrastructure-as-code workflows.

Feature Highlights

Security Enhancements

  • MFA Enforcement: Azure Resource Manager (ARM) now requires MFA for sensitive operations, with improved claims challenge mechanisms and troubleshooting guidance.
  • CVE Mitigations: Azure CLI upgraded from version 2.76 to 2.77 to close remote code execution and certificate validation vulnerabilities, in full alignment with security best practices.

Python 3.13 Support

  • Azure CLI now requires Python 3.13 for strict SSL verification, improving security but potentially causing proxy compatibility issues. Users should update proxy certificates accordingly.

New Modules, Extensions, and Service Coverage

  • Services Updated: ACR, ACS, AKS, App Config, App Service, ARM, Backup, Batch, Compute, Cosmos DB, Cognitive Services, IoT, Key Vault, SQL, Storage, and more.
  • Extensions Added: arize-ai, connectedmachine, containerapp, lambda-test, migrate, neon, pscloud, sftp, site, storage-blob-preview.
  • GA Modules: DeviceRegistry, DataMigration, FirmwareAnalysis, LoadTesting, StorageDiscovery, DataTransfer, ArizeAI, Fabric, StorageAction, Oracle.

ARM API and Endpoint Discovery

  • Azure CLI now leverages ARM API version 2022-09-01 for more accurate cloud registration and endpoint management, supporting better service compatibility and forward-compatibility.

Pagination Support in PowerShell

  • Invoke-AzRestMethod gains a new ‘-Paginate’ parameter to improve efficiency with large datasets, supporting server-driven pagination while maintaining backward compatibility.

Intelligent Change Preview and Template Export

  • What-If Analysis: Preview infrastructure modifications before deployment, identifying resources impacted by commands.
  • Export Bicep: Automatically generate Bicep templates to speed up infrastructure-as-code adoption, both features utilizing AI-assisted logic.

Handling Claims Challenges for MFA

  • When performing create, update, or delete operations, users must address claims challenges issued by ARM if MFA is not configured, with well-documented guidance for both Azure CLI and PowerShell workflows.

Azure CLI Example:

az login --tenant "aaaabbbb-0000-cccc-1111-dddd2222eeee" --scope "https://management.core.windows.net//.default" --claims-challenge "<claims-challenge-token>"

Azure PowerShell Example:

Connect-AzAccount -Tenant yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyy -Subscription zzzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzz -ClaimsChallenge <claims-challenge-token>

Breaking Changes and Migration Guidance

Get Involved

Additional Resources

This update was prepared by Alex-wdy for the Tech Community. Stay tuned for further features and improvements in the Azure command-line ecosystem.

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