Cumulative Update 2022
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2022 has been an interesting turn away from the trajectory of the previous two years. Some things seem to be almost “normal” (aka, pre -2020 standards of behavior), while others are still just starting to diverge. Diverge from what? Glad you asked!
The divergence from the psychological toilet flush on our social demeanor. Two years of angry and hurtful spewage of us/them bullshit in almost every corner: politics, religion, gender, race, food, drink, sports, transportation, kids/family, neighbors, climate, international stuff, you name it. Every single area of conversation could easily turn into an all-out soldering-iron-face-stabbing incident, with video coverage on every social media platform possible.
Personally, the best things to happen to me in 2022 (in no particular order):
- Recovering from COVID and Pneumonia (tough to spell that)
- My son getting his first recording deal and a road tour
- MMS MOA
- Friends checking in on me
- Twitter discussions
- Learning new things (technology, house repair, medical, nutrition, health, etc.)
Whatever happens with Twitter, I have very much enjoyed the honor of getting to meet and interact with so many people I would otherwise not likely have met in real life. The amount of knowledge I gained, and new perspectives I absorbed, the craziness, all of it, I wouldn’t trade it for all the Facebooks and Tik Toks of the world. Mastodon (skatterbrainz@infosec.exchange) is a new frontier for me, but it’s too soon for me to know if it will replace Twitter for my stupid rants and thoughts. We shall see what 2023 brings.
Alas, nothing in technology is forever (okay, except for old scripts). Bulletin boards, CompuServe and Prodigy, AOL (yuck!), GeoCities, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, G+, on and on and on. Someday these platforms of today will be old and forgotten. Hard to imagine it now, but it will happen. It has to. It’s the way life works: the old gives way to the new.
Azure Automation Consternation Gyration over Procrastination Constipation
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I love Azure Automation. I really do. Just in general. I know it’s not as sexy and fit as PowerApps or Functions, but it feels more like my dog. Always happy to see me. Never argues about my opinions or what I want in life. It just wags its tail and brings me a warm plate of fresh baked automation tools. I don’t use all of it, but most of it. But for what I need it does the job just fine.
That said…
I was recently informed by trusted sources that Microsoft had seriously entertained thoughts of using the D word on it, unilaterally. The D word of course being “deprecate”. And by “unilateral”, of course, I’m referring to their time-tested, age-proven track record of gathering customer feedback before making big changes. I mean, just look at Windows 11. Every single customer wanted that new Start Menu and Task bar, right? Obviously the masses spoke up and they just reacted. Silly me.
Any-who, I’m glad they put the gun down and stepped back from the ledge on that one. Because, I, and so many others I know, depend HEAVILY on that platform to drive CRITICAL and CORE operations for an incredibly diverse set of needs. You may not personally ever touch that product/service/platform (I really don’t know what the appropriate term is, but who cares), but trust me (as you trust everything on the Internet) it is a vital part of many environments around the globe.
So, how do you quantify “vital”? I doubt telemetry can be applied, since frequency and volume do not equate to importance. If you disagree, using the standard axiom test theorem: If you counted text messages to your boss or coworkers, and compared that count with your family members, does that mean your family is less important? And yes, “standard axiom theorem” is something I just made up, but that’s beside the point.
What remains for the future of Azure Automation? Is it truly on a roadmap of some kind? Is that roadmap being drawn by shareholders? Or is it drawn by program managers, who “know best” what we need? Who knows. I’ve submitted feedback, but it seems to go to the same place my complaints about crappy music end up.
Here’s my 2023 wish-list of improvements. Assuming this platform/service/product really has a future:
- Provide UI drop-downs for [ValidateSet()] lists like [boolean] works
- Provide UI support for [ValidateRange()] and [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] (stop+warn before running)
- Add a new asset category for “Files” (e.g. JSON, XML, YAML)
- Allow for encrypting File assets like that for variables
- Add a new service/license tier for runbooks start time SLA of “less than 10 minutes” or “doesn’t suck” (current SLA is supposedly 30 minutes)
- Clone the Test Panel sidebar UI into the main published UI (so I don’t have to re-enter everything for each subsequent Run)
- Move the “Description” panel into the “Overview” panel (combine them)
- The main “Jobs” panel should include a “Find Job” search feature like the one tied to each Runbook
- Bonus Crazy Idea: Integrate the Publish process with GitHub or ADO to provide change history and approval capabilities
Am I asking too much? Don’t answer that. I want to pretend it matters.
Other Azure Gripes
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- Azure VM “Run Command” should allow add/editing/saving powershell statements like saving queries in Log Analytics
- Azure VM Defender alerts for risky Run Command operations should include the statement that was entered/executed, so you can, you know, review what happened
- Azure AD activity log should actually show what changed when someone modifies the “UsageLocation” property of users
Try / Catch / Finally
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Finally, I just wanted to wish you and your family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, classmates, dogs, cats, fish, birds, and reptiles, a nice Thanksgiving, and a very happy (and safe) Holidays through the rest of 2022! May you find happiness and positivity and share it with others.
Cheers!