In this comprehensive community post, mynster outlines several bugs and feature suggestions for Azure Automation Accounts, aiming to improve reliability, developer experience, and usability for automation engineers.

Azure Automation: User Requests, Feature Suggestions, and Bug Reports

Author: mynster

This post collects detailed feedback on Microsoft Azure Automation Accounts, with first-hand observations and recommendations for improving workflow automation and integration with modern development practices.

Source Control (GitHub)

Bugs

  • Tags are being overwritten or removed during both full and incremental syncs with source control (reported as case #2508010040002105).

Feature Requests

  • When runbooks are deleted in source control, they should also be deleted in the Automation Account to maintain consistency.
  • Support for different sync types beyond PowerShell 5.1 (requests for newer versions before enabling source control are present).
  • Enable full repository syncing (recursion) rather than restricting to specific folders, improving repository organization.
  • Reduce redundancy in setting up multiple sources, especially as source control integration expires after one year regardless of PAT token settings.
  • Sync synopsis/description fields from PowerShell scripts directly to Automation Account descriptions, ideally by parsing script help output (e.g. the output of get-help .\ScriptName.ps1).

Logging

Bugs

  • Duplicate log entries appear after loading initial logs; subsequent scrolling repeats these entries (likely a JavaScript-related UI bug). This often happens during active runbook execution.
  • PowerShell 7+ outputs sometimes include unescaped ASCII characters, causing log splitting and decreased readability (reported as now fixed).

Feature Requests

  • Ability to search for a specific job ID in the general job list (currently only possible through workarounds).
  • Multi-line formatting support in log outputs for more readable outputs (e.g. Write-Output "New\r\nLine").

Runbook Page

Bugs

  • Searching for runbook names may produce inconsistent or incorrect results, such as non-matching entries, or failing to return to the full list after clearing a search.

Feature Requests

  • Option to rerun or restart a previous job with identical parameters, similar to restarting a GitHub Actions run.

Scheduling

Feature Requests

  • Define schedules for runbooks directly within code parameters. Current workaround involves scanning runbooks for parameters, constructing schedules programmatically, and tagging them with schedule information.

Hybrid Workers

Feature Requests

  • Ability to pause a hybrid worker within a worker group for maintenance or troubleshooting, without removal and extension reinstall (mitigates issues during patch windows or module updates).
  • Maintenance mode for hybrid workers, allowing completion of current jobs followed by suspension for updates or debugging.
  • Link to related Hybrid Worker troubleshooting guidance: Microsoft Docs Scenario

Additional Feature Requests

  • An end-user-friendly front end for Azure Automation (self-service portal), allowing selected users to run specific runbooks with tailored UI limitations. Example/inspiration: Self-Service Frontend on GitHub.
  • Runbook-level RBAC permissions, possibly extended beyond what CLI currently supports, to enhance security for individual workflows.
  • Centralized management blade for webhooks, giving a unified view of all webhook-to-runbook associations, their status, expiration, and last triggered time. This improves security and simplifies management over scattered per-runbook webhooks.

Highest Priority Wishes

  1. Revamp source control integration:
    • Support for more scripting languages and PowerShell versions
    • Accurate tag synchronization
    • Reflect deletions from source control in Automation Account automatically
  2. Robust hybrid worker maintenance mode:
    • Permit safe updates and troubleshooting
    • Prevent jobs from stalling or suspending during maintenance windows

The above points reflect practical needs from real-world Azure Automation administrators, with actionable suggestions for Microsoft to improve developer and operations experience.

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