Today, we are pleased to announce the first preview of a new experimental module that make it easier than ever for PowerShell users to create Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates: PSArm<\/a>.<\/p>\n This module enables existing PowerShell users to author ARM templates<\/a> using PowerShell syntax.<\/p>\n Similar to Azure Bicep<\/a>, PSArm is an independent module that creates the necessary ARM JSON template to deploy and configure Azure infrastructure in a PowerShell context.\nPSArm allows PowerShell users who are familiar with ARM to write complex deployment templates by mixing the declarative syntax of ARM with the imperative syntax of PowerShell.<\/p>\n With PSArm, users can take advantage of PowerShell features when authoring ARM templates, such as:<\/p>\n The PSArm module is still in early preview and is intended both as a demonstration both of how PowerShell can be leveraged to make ARM authoring easier and as a proof of concept for domain-specific languages (DSL) in PowerShell.\nAs a preview release, there may be breaking changes as development continues based on user feedback.<\/p>\n Bicep is Azure’s primary, supported Domain Specific Language (DSL) for deploying Azure resources declaratively. It aims to drastically simplify the ARM template authoring experience with a cleaner syntax, improved type safety, and better support for modularity and code re-use.<\/p>\n PSArm is different from Bicep in that it is built for users who are already familiar and comfortable with PowerShell and its syntax.<\/p>\n Additionally, Bicep is almost entirely a declarative language–meaning it represents a declaration of the end-state of Azure resources–while PSArm exposes the capabilities of PowerShell scripting alongside ARM resource declarations.<\/p>\n We would also like to thank the Bicep team for their help and feedback as we developed PSArm.\u00a0 In fact, the template schema support in PSArm comes from the\u00a0bicep-types-az<\/a> project, which also powers Bicep.<\/p>\n PSArm has been published to the PowerShell Gallery<\/a>.\nThe module can also be built from source by following the instructions on the PSArm GitHub repository<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once you have the module installed you can begin authoring ARM templates with PowerShell.\nTo use PSArm, use the The following example builds an ARM template to create a new storage account:<\/p>\n Because PSArm scripts are just ordinary PowerShell scripts, you can use a ARM template properties like Within each resource are resource-level keywords specific to that resource type, which enable you to specify attributes available to that resource.\nFor resources with properties, a properties keyword specifies a block in which each resource property can be configured with its corresponding PowerShell keyword.\nThese keywords can be discovered with PowerShell completions.<\/p>\n While using PSArm, PowerShell variables can be used removing the need for many ARM variable expressions, but there are a few cases where the ARM expressions may be necessary:\n– When a built-in ARM function needs to evaluated at deployment time, as in PSArm also provides ARM built-in expression functions as their own keywords. These functions allow users to use PowerShell syntax to express function application and member access.<\/p>\n For more a more detailed explanation of the features and mechanisms available in PSArm, take a look at the README on the PSArm GitHub repository<\/a>.<\/p>\n With the above PSArm script saved to This will create the equivalent ARM template in The resulting ARM template can be viewed below:<\/p>\n For more PSArm examples, see the examples folder<\/a> in the PSArm repository.<\/p>\n Community feedback is essential to the development of PSArm and future experimentation.\nFeedback specifically on the conversion cmdlets, We are pleased to announce the preview of PSArm, providing a domain-specific language embedded in PowerShell for Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":685,"featured_media":13641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3170,99,102,248,3171],"class_list":["post-18960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-powershell","tag-announcement","tag-azure","tag-azure-resource-manager","tag-powershell","tag-psarm"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" We are pleased to announce the preview of PSArm, providing a domain-specific language embedded in PowerShell for Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Bicep and PSArm<\/h2>\n
How can I start using this module?<\/h2>\n
Arm<\/code> keyword followed by a scriptblock.\nFrom within this scriptblock, PSArm provides contextual functionality.\nNote that the file name must end with the .psarm.ps1<\/code> extension, for example newStorageAccount.psarm.ps1<\/code>.<\/p>\nparam(\r\n [Parameter(Mandatory)]\r\n [string]\r\n $storageAccountName,\r\n\r\n [Parameter(Mandatory)]\r\n [string]\r\n $location,\r\n\r\n [Parameter()]\r\n [string]\r\n $accountType = 'Standard_LRS',\r\n\r\n [Parameter()]\r\n [string]\r\n $kind = 'StorageV2',\r\n\r\n [Parameter()]\r\n [string]\r\n $accessTier = 'Hot',\r\n\r\n [Parameter()]\r\n [string]\r\n $minimumTLSVersion = 'TLS1_2',\r\n\r\n [Parameter()]\r\n [bool]\r\n $supportsHTTPSTrafficOnly = 1,\r\n\r\n [Parameter()]\r\n [bool]\r\n $allowBlobPublicAccess = 1,\r\n\r\n [Parameter()]\r\n [bool]\r\n $allowSharedKeyAccess = 1\r\n)\r\n\r\nArm {\r\n\r\n Resource $storageAccountName -Namespace 'Microsoft.Storage' -Type 'storageAccounts' -apiVersion '2019-06-01' -kind $kind -Location $location {\r\n ArmSku $accountType\r\n Properties {\r\n accessTier $accessTier\r\n minimumTLSVersion $minimumTLSVersion\r\n supportsHTTPSTrafficOnly $supportsHTTPSTrafficOnly\r\n allowBlobPublicAccess $allowBlobPublicAccess\r\n allowSharedKeyAccess $allowSharedKeyAccess\r\n }\r\n }\r\n}\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\nparam<\/code> block at the top of a .psarm.ps1<\/code> script as always to declare parameters, give them default values, mark them as mandatory, apply validation attributes like [ValidateSet(...)]<\/code>, and so on.<\/p>\nresources<\/code> and outputs<\/code> are available in PSArm via keywords like Resource<\/code> and Output<\/code>. These keywords instantiate one resource or output instance at a time. These keywords can be used in any order.<\/p>\nresourceGroup()<\/code> or utcNow()<\/code>\n– A variable is needed to be evaluated only once, as in uniqueString()<\/code> to provide a hash value\n– When a secure input is required, as in the securestring<\/code> parameter<\/p>\nnewStorageAccount.psarm.ps1<\/code>, you can turn it into an ARM JSON template with the Publish-PSArmTemplate<\/code> cmdlet:<\/p>\nPublish-PSArmTemplate -Path .\\newStorageAccount.psarm.ps1 -Parameters @{\r\n storageAccountName = 'storageName'\r\n location = 'location'\r\n}\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n.\\template.json<\/code>.\nThis file can then be deployed like any other ARM template, for example using Azure PowerShell:<\/p>\nNew-AzResourceGroupDeployment -ResourceGroupName myRG -TemplateFile .\\template.json\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n{\r\n \"$schema\": \"https:\/\/schema.management.azure.com\/schemas\/2019-04-01\/deploymentTemplate.json#\",\r\n \"contentVersion\": \"1.0.0.0\",\r\n \"metadata\": {\r\n \"_generator\": {\r\n \"name\": \"psarm\",\r\n \"version\": \"0.1.0.0\",\r\n \"psarm-psversion\": \"7.1.0\",\r\n \"templateHash\": \"15035725580591843956\"\r\n }\r\n },\r\n \"resources\": [\r\n {\r\n \"name\": \"test\",\r\n \"type\": \"Microsoft.Resources\/deployments\",\r\n \"apiVersion\": \"2019-10-01\",\r\n \"properties\": {\r\n \"mode\": \"Incremental\",\r\n \"expressionEvaluationOptions\": {\r\n \"scope\": \"inner\"\r\n },\r\n \"template\": {\r\n \"$schema\": \"https:\/\/schema.management.azure.com\/schemas\/2019-04-01\/deploymentTemplate.json#\",\r\n \"contentVersion\": \"1.0.0.0\",\r\n \"resources\": [\r\n {\r\n \"name\": \"psarmtest\",\r\n \"apiVersion\": \"2019-06-01\",\r\n \"type\": \"Microsoft.Storage\/storageAccounts\",\r\n \"kind\": \"StorageV2\",\r\n \"location\": \"westus2\",\r\n \"sku\": {\r\n \"name\": \"Standard_LRS\"\r\n },\r\n \"properties\": {\r\n \"accessTier\": \"Hot\",\r\n \"minimumTlsVersion\": \"TLS1_2\",\r\n \"supportsHttpsTrafficOnly\": true,\r\n \"allowBlobPublicAccess\": true,\r\n \"allowSharedKeyAccess\": true\r\n }\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n }\r\n }\r\n }\r\n ]\r\n}\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\nFeedback and Support<\/h2>\n
ConvertFrom-ArmTemplate<\/code> and ConvertTo-PSArm<\/code>, is appreciated.\nWhile there are no committed dates going forward, this is a quality driven project.\nIf significant changes come in based off of user feedback, a release will occur to verify the issues have been addressed.\nTo file an issue or to contribute, please visit the PSArm GitHub repository<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"