Azure Powershell - Az module not working on Ubuntu hosted build agent

Question

I have a build running in Azure DevOps, on an Ubuntu 16.04 hosted build agent. I'm using the latest version of the "Azure Powershell" task (version 4.* preview), which is supposed to be multi-platform, support Powershell core, and support using the Azure Powershell Az module.

However, it doesn't quite work. Before running any of my script, it errors out with:

##[section]Starting: Azure PowerShell script: InlineScript
==============================================================================
Task         : Azure PowerShell
Description  : Run a PowerShell script within an Azure environment
Version      : 4.0.0
Author       : Microsoft Corporation
Help         : [More Information](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=613749)
==============================================================================
##[warning]Can\'t find loc string for key: GeneratingScript
GeneratingScript
[command]/usr/bin/pwsh -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command . '/home/vsts/work/_temp/e66222aa-283d-4dfd-b5c1-f1d2a4a3ba9f.ps1'
Could not find the module Az.Accounts with given version. If the module was recently installed, retry after restarting the Azure Pipelines task agent.
At /home/vsts/work/_tasks/AzurePowerShell_72a1931b-effb-4d2e-8fd8-f8472a07cb62/4.0.0/InitializeAz.ps1:25 char:5
+     throw ("Could not find the module Az.Accounts with given version. ...
+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (Could not find ...nes task agent.:String) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Could not find the module Az.Accounts with given version. If the module was recently installed, retry after restarting the Azure Pipelines task agent.

##[error]PowerShell exited with code '1'.
##[error]PowerShell wrote one or more lines to the standard error stream.
##[section]Finishing: Azure PowerShell script: InlineScript

The Az Powershell module appears to work/load correctly on the Windows VS2017 hosted agent, but no luck on Ubuntu. Any recommendations on fixing this?

Answer 1

I was able to get Az Powershell working in my Azure DevOps build on an Ubuntu agent by adding a prior build step that installs the Az Powershell module on the build agent.

I added a powershell script to install the Az module and uninstall the Azure-Rm module; and I called it from a command-line task so I could wrap it in sudo to make it a global change.

Here's the command-line task (YAML):

steps:
- displayName: 'Install Az Powershell Modules'
  script: |
   sudo /usr/bin/pwsh -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File "$(Build.Repository.LocalPath)/build/install-az-modules.ps1" 

And here's the build/install-az-modules.ps1 script:

<#
.SYNOPSIS
    Build agent script to install Az Powershell modules. This script should be run as sudo.

    On a linux build agent, this command can be run as:
    sudo /usr/bin/pwsh -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -Command . '$(Build.Repository.LocalPath)/build/install-az-modules.ps1'
#>

# Disable status info to clean up build agent stdout
$global:ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'
$global:VerbosePreference = "SilentlyContinue"

$azureRmModule = Get-InstalledModule AzureRM -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($azureRmModule) {
  Write-Host 'AzureRM module exists. Removing it'
  Uninstall-Module -Name AzureRM -AllVersions
  Write-Host 'AzureRM module removed'
}

Write-Host 'Installing Az module...'
Install-Module Az -Force -AllowClobber

if (Get-Command Uninstall-AzureRm -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {
  Write-Host 'Running Uninstall-AzureRm...'
  Uninstall-AzureRm
}