Python SDK for Azure Basic Tutorial

As Spider-Man would say, from great enterprise comes great complexity. Microsoft cloud services are very, very enterprisey; which means they're also absurdly overcomplicated. One can probably spend most of his 30-day trial simply wandering around their dozens of different "portals" and "account management" screens. So here's a simple tutorial on going from zero to spinning up a VM with the Python SDK. (This is a work in progress, but hopefully it saves you the headaches I got).

1. Sign up for an Azure free trial. You'll need a phone and a credit card, because MS requires verification like pr0n sites of yore.
2. WAIT! DON'T DO ANYTHING! After the signup is successful and you're sent to the dashboard, chances are that your account is not actually fully formed, and you might be getting a lot of prompts about signing up for a Pay As You Go subscription. Wait 10 to 15 minutes. Grab a coffee; check Hacker News; live the enterprise life.
3. close your browser and go back to the portal.
4. Go to your active directory
   
5. Create a Global Admin user by clicking on ADD USER (not the giant NEW, that would be too easy!). Write down the temporary password. (Note: I've no idea whether it has to be a global admin, but we're just trying to keep things simple here.)
   
6. Now you have to associate the user to your Azure subscription, because you created it, it's in your AD, but obviously it's completely unrelated to your resources. Enterprise life! Go back to Azure portal, click on Subscriptions. NOTE DOWN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ID, you'll need it later.
   
7. Click on the subscription then Settings
   
8. Click on Users (bottom right)
   
9. Click on Add, select the Owner role, then add the new user to it. (Note: again, Owner is probably a bit too powerful, but we're trying to keep things simple.) Reference here.
   
10. Now open a Private Window in your browser, or sign out of your account, because you have to log on the same portal as the new user.
11. After logging on, you'll be forced to change the password. Done? Good; log out, close the window, the web-based ordeal is officially over.
12. Create and activate a virtualenv (this procedure will differ depending on your platform/setup, reference here):

    mkdir azure_test && cd azure_test
    pyvenv-3.5 env
    source env/bin/activate
    pip install --upgrade pip   # this is optional but good practice
    

13. install the Azure sdk

    pip install --pre azure

14. Launch python and get cracking:

    sub_id = 'your-sub-id'  # you should have got this earlier, it's visible in "Subscriptions"
    # authentication reference at
    # http://azure-sdk-for-python.readthedocs.io/en/latest/resourcemanagementauthentication.html#using-ad-user-password
    from azure.common.credentials import UserPassCredentials
    credentials = UserPassCredentials('yourADuser@youraccount.onmicrosoft.com','youropassword')
    from azure.mgmt.resource.resources import ResourceManagementClient
    resource_client = ResourceManagementClient(credentials, sub_id)
    
    # one-off registrations, supposedly you won't need them next time
    resource_client.providers.register('Microsoft.Compute')
    resource_client.providers.register('Microsoft.Network')
    resource_client.providers.register('Microsoft.Storage')
    
    # create the clients
    from azure.mgmt.compute import ComputeManagementClient
    compute_client = ComputeManagementClient(credentials, sub_id)
    from azure.mgmt.network import NetworkManagementClient
    network_client = NetworkManagementClient(credentials, sub_id)
    from azure.mgmt.storage import StorageManagementClient
    storage_client = StorageManagementClient(credentials, sub_id)
    

15. Now follow the code to create a VM here, skipping the 4 lines that define resource_client, storage_client etc, because you already have them.

The Nifty Minidrive is a Nifty Hack

I know it's fashionable to hate on the Nifty Minidrive: "overpriced SD adapter!" "I can get an equivalent one for $2!". Truth is, it's an ingenious hack; a well executed, high-quality concept conceived by two local Manchester lads with a Kickstarter campaign. I've tried the cheap alternatives and they just don't compare.

Yesterday I was in Staples (aka Home Depot) for various reasons, and on a whim I picked up a Sandisk 128GB SDXC card to replace the 64GB one I was already using with Nifty. A quick swap, and now I have a grand total of 640 GB of space on my MBPr. That was just too easy!

(This said, I hope Apple hurries up with the MBPr refresh so I can buy a new laptop with 1TB disk. I was really disappointed by the lack of hardware announcements at WWDC; my current MBPr is now 4 years old but I'm not going to drop two grand on a new machine with chips from 2014...)