Hybrid Environment Update Management with Azure Automation

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

In order to manage updates across hybrid environments using Azure Automation, we can deploy Hybrid Runbook Workers which allow you to run runbooks on machines located in your data center to manage local resources. These runbooks can also be scheduled or invoked through webhooks, and you can use Azure Automation Watchers to monitor resources and trigger runbooks upon changes.

The following Pulumi program in Python will set up an Azure Automation Account and a Hybrid Runbook Worker Group. It also includes an example of how to create a schedule to periodically initiate runbooks.

Here's what each resource in the program does:

- `AutomationAccount`: This creates an Azure Automation account which is a container for your automation resources (runbooks, modules, configurations, Hybrid Runbook Workers).

- `HybridRunbookWorkerGroup`: It creates a group for Hybrid Runbook Workers. Workers in this group can then execute runbooks on your local infrastructure.

- `Schedule`: This establishes a recurrence schedule for jobs. For instance, you could schedule a runbook to check and deploy updates across your servers every night.

Here is the Python program that sets up such an environment:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_azure as azure

# Resource Group
resource_group = azure.core.ResourceGroup('rg', name='hybrid-automation-rg')

# Automation Account
automation_account = azure.automation.Account('automation-account',
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    sku_name='Basic',  # Basic is fine for demonstration purposes.
    location=resource_group.location,
)

# Hybrid Runbook Worker Group
hybrid_worker_group = azure.automation.HybridRunbookWorkerGroup('hybrid-worker-group',
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    automation_account_name=automation_account.name,
    credential_name='hybridWorkerCred',  # This name ties to a credential you'd set up in your Azure Automation account.
)

# Schedule for the runbooks (daily at 2 AM)
daily_schedule = azure.automation.Schedule('daily-schedule',
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    automation_account_name=automation_account.name,
    frequency='Day',
    interval=1,  # Run once every day.
    start_time='2024-02-01T02:00:00+00:00',  # Use an appropriate start time.
)

# Exposing relevant URIs and IDs for connections to other services or manual lookups.
pulumi.export('automation_account_id', automation_account.id)
pulumi.export('hybrid_worker_group_name', hybrid_worker_group.name)
pulumi.export('daily_schedule_name', daily_schedule.name)
```

This code assumes that the Hybrid Worker itself (the physical or virtual machine) is already set up and connected to the Hybrid Runbook Worker Group using Azure Automation's registration process which involves running a setup script within the target environment.

Also, we assumed the credential named `hybridWorkerCred` is already available in the automation account. This would typically be the credentials the runbooks would use to connect and perform actions on your local resources.

You would need to create your runbooks within the Azure Automation interface (or programmatically via another resource if supported) and configure them to use the schedule and worker groups created by this program.

Lastly, make sure that you replace `'2024-02-01T02:00:00+00:00'` with the correct start time for your schedule. The workers will need access to both the Azure endpoints and your local resources, so make sure network connectivity and permissions are configured accordingly.