rlevchenko

At the recent Build conference, Microsoft officially announced public preview of Azure Cloud Shell – browser-accessible, pre-configured shell experience for managing Azure resources without the overhead of installing, versioning, and maintaining a machine yourself.

Cloud Shell runs entirely on containers orchestrated by Kubernetes and shows us just another example of how container technology can revolutionize solutions built on Azure.

Machine for Cloud Shell is not persistent and temporary provided on a per-request basis (1 machine per 1 user, permissions are set as a regular Linux user). That machine’s hosting is free. You just need to pay for storage that it consumes (file share –> described later in this post).

Cloud Shell comes with the support of well known tools and languages:

Category	Name
Azure Tools	Azure CLI 2.0 and 1.0
Linux shell interpreter	Bash,sh
Text editors	vim,nano,emacs
Containers	Docker,Kubectl, DC/OS CLI
Language	Version
.NET	1.01
Go	1.7
Node.js	6.9.4
Python	2.7 and 3.5
More:	use this link

It supports Bash experience so far. Everyone’s favorite PowerShell is coming soon. You can try the new shell today by pressing the special icon at the top navigation bar of the Azure portal.

The new storage account (LRS), resources group and file share will be created during one-time setup.

Resource group is named: cloud-shell-storage-
Storage Account: cs-uniqueGuid
File Share: cs—com-uniqueGuid

As Cloud Shell’s machine is temporary, file share makes possible to persist your bash $Home directory. This file share will mount as clouddrive under your $Home directory and it’s also used to store a 5 GB image created for you that automatically updates and persists your $Home directory as well (see the pic below, acc_<username>.img).

Note: you pay only for this file share. There are no any additional compute costs.

To download/upload files you can use portal as usual. For example, I created txt-file in my clouddrive and would like to download it to my local machine. So, I need to open the file share associated with cloud shell, locate the file “text.txt” and just hit “Download”.

To add some files from local machine to clouddrive, use the “Upload” button and then check result by running cd clouddrive and ls in the cloud shell session

As you may noticed, Cloud Shell automatically authenticates on each session for instant access to your resources through the Azure CLI 2.0. You can even use the interactive mode for Azure CLI 2.0 to ease scripting and save a lot of time

Each cloud shell session times out after 10 minutes without any activities

That’s great, but that is not the whole news

Cloud Shell is also embedded directly in docs.microsoft.com and it makes Azure CLI samples in documentation fully interactive. To evaluate this new functionality, go to Azure CLI 2.0 documentation, log in to Cloud Shell by clicking “Try it” and start learning in just a new way.

Some more examples

Creating VM in the cloud shell

List of VMs in the resource group with customized output

I remember when my parents bought for me the first computer in early 2000s (dot-com era). It was based on Duron 1.3 Ghz (Spitfire), 256 Mb RAM + IDE disks, of course. You may or may not be surprised that it still works properly side-by-side with Windows XP.

But technology is like a time, doesn’t want to wait. There comes a moment in every PC’s life when it must be replaced or upgraded due to incompatibility with modern applications. For instance, Windows 8 requires SSE2 CPU instructions and even Skype won’t work without them (SSE2 is a requirement for video calls).

Therefore, we need to search for some replacement options. It may be a simple upgrade or purchasing a brand new PC. My choice is the second, obviously. So, please welcome Intel NUC.

What’s NUC?

Intel New Unit of Computing or more simply NUC is a 4×4-inch mini-PC (barebone) and is about 1.5-2 in. thick (thickness depends on model) with built-in CPU (from Atom/Celeron to Core i7), integrated graphics, customizable board for storage and memory.

Furthermore, almost all models also come with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth modules, card readers and even with dual microphones.

NUC is completely fanless and noiseless (except of Skull Canyon NUC series which is oriented to gamers). Some of NUC kits can also be shipped with the pre-installed SSD and memory. List of currently available kits is here .

The number following the “NUC” indicates it’s generation. The latest NUC generation is 7 for now. You need to check launch date and gen id in description of each kit before buying. Example: NUC6CAYH belongs to the Intel NUC 6th generation and launched at Q4’16

Some NUC analogs: Gigabyte BRIX , Asus VivoMini series

My NUC

Well, It’s not mine anymore ‘cause I bought it to my parents Улыбка . Anyway, I spent 3 days working with NUC6CAYH and really enjoyed it. It’s definitely what I searched for.

VGA port is on board (monitor is good but doesn’t support DVI and etc),
dual array microphones (no additional costs for headphones),
noiseless and with the latest Apollo Lake Celeron J3455 CPU

Recommended price for this kit is just 139$. Additionally, don’t forget to count SSD (m.2 or sata) and memory.

Be aware that SSD must have up to 9.5 mm thickness and memory should be verified for compatibility at the manufacturer’s official site

I bought and installed 1 x A-Data SU800 with 3DNAND and 1 x Kingston HyperX Impact with good timings (I don’t need dual-channel yet)

So my costs totalled approximately 270$

Installation is quite simple and takes 2 minutes (use instructions that come with your NUC). Actually, you just need to unfasten 4 screws and place ssd, memory. No cables required.