Extracting credentials from Automation Accounts
One of the goals associated with many cloud environments is automation. This could be as simple as automating system configuration changes and patch management, or as complex as automatically rotating SSL certificates on web applications and storing them in key vaults.
These actions may be accomplished by running code in an Automation Account in a runbook. These runbooks are just code blocks stored in the Automation Account. The code can be in PowerShell or Python (2 or 3), and the in-browser editor makes it really easy to integrate common Azure management functions into the code.
Figure 6.55 – Options for runbook creation
There are a million different tasks that can be automated in Azure, but these actions often require access to a security principal in the tenant or credentials for external services. In the case of a security principal, a Run as account can be added to the Automation Account. This...
