Automate Azure File Sync Deployments with PowerShell

Automation plays a key role in corporate agility and DevOps culture. This lab illustrates how to automate the creation of resources in Azure, and the configuration of a Windows Server 2019 VM with the goal of setting up an Azure File Sync group—a practical and non-trivial task. You will create an Azure File Sync Group with a single server in it. The beauty of automation is that you could apply the same procedure to as many servers as you like for your own environments. The PowerShell scripts you develop in this lab could easily be used within PowerShell DSC for large-scale deployments involving dozens or more servers.

Lab Objectives

Upon completion of this Lab, you will be able to:

• Completely automate the deployment of Azure File Sync using PowerShell
• Understand and use Azure VM extensions, particularly the Custom Script Extension
• Use Cloud Academy's Hosted IDE for PowerShell to edit and execute PowerShell scripts
• Explain how to automate other Azure workloads in PowerShell

Lab Prerequisites

You should be familiar with:

• Azure File Sync
• Azure PowerShell basics

The following Cloud Academy content can be used to meet the Lab's prerequisites:

• Synchronize Files Across Servers with Azure File Sync
• Getting Started Managing Azure with PowerShell

Updates

June 5th, 2023 - Resolved an issue that caused the lab to fail to setup on rare occasions

December 21st, 2022 - Updated lab to use Cloud Academy's Hosted IDE, the Azure Az PowerShell module, and Windows Server 2019

May 22nd, 2020 - Updated a validation check to more accurately reflect whether students have met the conditions of the lab

May 5th, 2020 - Added a validation check function to check the work done in the lab

Nov. 17th, 2019 - Changed lab region to South Central US to avoid an issue that prevented completion of the lab in West US