Windows Azure Powershell Copying file to VM

Question

I am trying to use Windows Azure PowerShell to copy a zip file into VM. I have managed to connect to VM following the documentation.

But, I cannot find any tutorial to upload / copy / transfer a zip file to VM Disk, say into the C drive.

Can any one please help me giving any link for the tutorial or any idea how can I copy this?

Solution 1

You cannot use PowerShell to copy a file directly to a Virtual Machine's OS disk (or even to one of its attached disks). There's no API for communicating directly with a Virtual Machine's innards (you'd need to create your own custom service for that.

You can use PowerShell to upload a file to a Blob, with Set-AzureStorageBlobContent. At that point, you could notify your running app (possibly with a Queue message?) on your Virtual Machine that there's a file waiting for it to process. And the processing could be as simple as copying the file down to the VM's local disk.

Solution 2

Here is ano ther approach that I documented here. It involves

1. Creating and mounting an empty local VHD.
2. Copying your files to the new VHD and dismount it.
3. Copy the VHD to azure blob storage
4. Attach that VHD to your VM.

Here is an example:

#Create and mount a new local VHD
$volume = new-vhd -Path test.vhd -SizeBytes 50MB | `
  Mount-VHD -PassThru | `
  Initialize-Disk -PartitionStyle mbr -Confirm:$false -PassThru | `
  New-Partition -UseMaximumSize -AssignDriveLetter -MbrType IFS | `
  Format-Volume -NewFileSystemLabel "VHD" -Confirm:$false

#Copy my files  
Copy-Item C:\dev\boxstarter "$($volume.DriveLetter):\" -Recurse
Dismount-VHD test.vhd

#upload the Vhd to azure
Add-AzureVhd -Destination http://mystorageacct.blob.core.windows.net/vhdstore/test.vhd `
  -LocalFilePath test.vhd

#mount the VHD to my VM
Get-AzureVM MyCloudService MyVMName | `
  Add-AzureDataDisk -ImportFrom `
  -MediaLocation "http://mystorageacct.blob.core.windows.net/vhdstore/test.vhd" `
  -DiskLabel "boxstarter" -LUN 0 | `
  Update-AzureVM

Solution 3

Here is some code that I got from some powershell examples and modified. It works over a session created with New-PSSession. There's a cool wrapper for that also included below. Lastly, I needed to send a whole folder over so that's here too..

Some example usage for tying them together

# open remote session
$session = Get-Session -uri $uri -credentials $credential 
# copy installer to VM
Write-Verbose "Checking if file $installerDest needs to be uploaded"
Send-File -Source $installerSrc -Destination $installerDest -Session $session -onlyCopyNew $true



<#
.SYNOPSIS
  Returns a session given the URL 
.DESCRIPTION
  http://michaelcollier.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/using-remote-powershell-with-windows-azure-vms/
#>
function Get-Session($uri, $credentials)
{
    for($retry = 0; $retry -le 5; $retry++)
    {
      try
      {
        $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName $uri[0].DnsSafeHost -Credential $credentials -Port $uri[0].Port -UseSSL
        if ($session -ne $null)
        {
            return $session
        }

        Write-Output "Unable to create a PowerShell session . . . sleeping and trying again in 30 seconds."
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 30
      }
      catch
      {
        Write-Output "Unable to create a PowerShell session . . . sleeping and trying again in 30 seconds."
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 30
      }
    }
}

<#
.SYNOPSIS
  Sends a file to a remote session.
  NOTE: will delete the destination before uploading
.EXAMPLE
  $remoteSession = New-PSSession -ConnectionUri $remoteWinRmUri.AbsoluteUri -Credential $credential
  Send-File -Source "c:\temp\myappdata.xml" -Destination "c:\temp\myappdata.xml" $remoteSession

  Copy the required files to the remote server 

    $remoteSession = New-PSSession -ConnectionUri $frontEndwinRmUri.AbsoluteUri -Credential $credential
    $sourcePath = "$PSScriptRoot\$remoteScriptFileName"
    $remoteScriptFilePath = "$remoteScriptsDirectory\$remoteScriptFileName"
    Send-File $sourcePath $remoteScriptFilePath $remoteSession

    $answerFileName = Split-Path -Leaf $WebPIApplicationAnswerFile
    $answerFilePath = "$remoteScriptsDirectory\$answerFileName"
    Send-File $WebPIApplicationAnswerFile $answerFilePath $remoteSession
    Remove-PSSession -InstanceId $remoteSession.InstanceId
#>
function Send-File
{
    param (

        ## The path on the local computer
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
        [string]
        $Source,

        ## The target path on the remote computer
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
        [string]
        $Destination,

        ## The session that represents the remote computer
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
        [System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.PSSession] 
        $Session,

        ## should we quit if file already exists?
        [bool]
        $onlyCopyNew = $false

        )

    $remoteScript =
    {
        param ($destination, $bytes)

        # Convert the destination path to a full filesystem path (to supportrelative paths)
        $Destination = $ExecutionContext.SessionState.`
        Path.GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath($Destination)

        # Write the content to the new file
        $file = [IO.File]::Open($Destination, "OpenOrCreate")
        $null = $file.Seek(0, "End")
        $null = $file.Write($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length)
        $file.Close()
    }

    # Get the source file, and then start reading its content
    $sourceFile = Get-Item $Source

    # Delete the previously-existing file if it exists
    $abort = Invoke-Command -Session $Session {
        param ([String] $dest, [bool]$onlyCopyNew)

        if (Test-Path $dest) 
        { 
            if ($onlyCopyNew -eq $true)
            {
                return $true
            }

            Remove-Item $dest
        }

        $destinationDirectory = Split-Path -Path $dest -Parent
         if (!(Test-Path $destinationDirectory))
        {
            New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $destinationDirectory 
        }

        return $false
    } -ArgumentList $Destination, $onlyCopyNew

    if ($abort -eq $true)
    {
        Write-Host 'Ignored file transfer - already exists'
        return
    }

    # Now break it into chunks to stream
    Write-Progress -Activity "Sending $Source" -Status "Preparing file"
    $streamSize = 1MB
    $position = 0
    $rawBytes = New-Object byte[] $streamSize
    $file = [IO.File]::OpenRead($sourceFile.FullName)
    while (($read = $file.Read($rawBytes, 0, $streamSize)) -gt 0)
    {
        Write-Progress -Activity "Writing $Destination" -Status "Sending file" `
            -PercentComplete ($position / $sourceFile.Length * 100)

        # Ensure that our array is the same size as what we read from disk
        if ($read -ne $rawBytes.Length)
        {
            [Array]::Resize( [ref] $rawBytes, $read)
        }

        # And send that array to the remote system
        Invoke-Command -Session $session $remoteScript -ArgumentList $destination, $rawBytes

        # Ensure that our array is the same size as what we read from disk
        if ($rawBytes.Length -ne $streamSize)
        {
            [Array]::Resize( [ref] $rawBytes, $streamSize)
        }
        [GC]::Collect()
        $position += $read
    }

    $file.Close()

    # Show the result
    Invoke-Command -Session $session { Get-Item $args[0] } -ArgumentList $Destination
}

<#
.SYNOPSIS
  Sends all files in a folder to a remote session.
  NOTE: will delete any destination files before uploading
.EXAMPLE
  $remoteSession = New-PSSession -ConnectionUri $remoteWinRmUri.AbsoluteUri -Credential $credential
  Send-Folder -Source 'c:\temp\' -Destination 'c:\temp\' $remoteSession
#>
function Send-Folder 
{
    param (
        ## The path on the local computer
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
        [string]
        $Source,

        ## The target path on the remote computer
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
        [string]
        $Destination,

        ## The session that represents the remote computer
     #   [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
        [System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.PSSession] 
        $Session,

        ## should we quit if files already exist?
        [bool]
        $onlyCopyNew = $false
    )

    foreach ($item in Get-ChildItem $Source)
    {
        if (Test-Path $item.FullName -PathType Container) {
            Send-Folder $item.FullName "$Destination\$item" $Session $onlyCopyNew
        } else {
            Send-File -Source $item.FullName -Destination "$destination\$item" -Session $Session -onlyCopyNew $onlyCopyNew
        }
    }
}

Solution 4

1. Install AzCopy from http://aka.ms/downloadazcopy
2. Read docs from: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/storage-use-azcopy
3. cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy"
4. Get Blob Storage (Secondary) Key

5. Powershell: Blob Upload single file

    .\AzCopy /Source:C:\myfolder /Dest:https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myfolder/ /DestKey:key /Pattern:abc.txt

6. Logon to Remote VM

7. Powershell: Blob Download single file

    .\AzCopy /Source:https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/myfileshare/myfolder/ /Dest:C:\myfolder /SourceKey:key /Pattern:abc.txt

View more solutions

Comments

[Fernando Correia]

If you REALLY need this feature you can do this by establishing a point-to-site VPN and copying to a shared folder over the virtual network. If you only want to copy a few files for admin work you can Copy them in your local machine and Paste them in the remote access window.

[shieldstroy]

How does powershell not have an SCP equivalent??

[David Makogon]

@shieldstroy - Like I said in my answer, you can upload a file. But... upload directly to blob storage. And yes, PowerShell lets you do that. The issue is that there's no direct way to interact with a VM's file system remotely (unless, for example, you set up a VPN). And the lack of direct disk access to a VM has zero to do with PowerShell.

[Don Branson]

@shieldstroy - or maybe a nice Ansible equivalent.

[Flinkman]

Many thanks, I've been battling with Azure File Copy on my build server, which works on some environments, but not others. This was the key to solving that problem.

[stej]

Copy-Item got possibility to copy toSession. Useful when you have open Ps session ~ remoting.

[stej]

Upvoted. Looks useful, but I guess it is awefully slow.

[disp_name]

Please refrain from asking questions in the answers section.