How to save the output of Azure-cli commands in a variable - python-3.x

Question

When using azure-cli in python 3.5 and calling the commands from a script I have no control on the output in the console.
When a command is executed it prints the result to the console, but I'm struggling to just take the result and put it in a variable to analyze it.
from azure.cli.core import get_default_cli
class AzureCmd():
def __init__(self, username, password):
self.username = username
self.password = password
def login(self, tenant):
login_successfull = get_default_cli().invoke(['login',
'--tenant', tenant,
'--username', self.username,
'--password', self.password]) == 0
return login_successfull
def list_vm(self, tenant):
list_vm = get_default_cli().invoke(['vm', 'list', '--output', 'json'])
print(list_vm)
tenant = 'mytenant.onmicrosoft.com'
cmd = AzureCmd('login', 'mypassword')
cmd.login(tenant)
cmd.list_vm(tenant)
Here is my my script attempt.
What I want to achieve : not getting any output when cmd.login(tenant) is executed.
Instead of getting 0 (success) or 1 (failure) in my variables login_successfull and list_vm, I want to save the output of the get_default_cli().invoke() in it.

Answer 1

I ran into the same problem, and found a solution, I also found out many people offered the standard solution that normally works in most cases, but they didn't verify it works for this scenario, and it turns out az cli is an edge case.
I think the issue has something to do with az cli is based on python.
Win10CommandPrompt:\> where az
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\CLI2\wbin\az.cmd
If you look in that file you'll see something like this and discover that Azure CLI is just python:
python.exe -IBm azure.cli
So to do what you want to do, try this (it works for me):
import subprocess
out = subprocess.run(['python', '-IBm', 'azure.cli', '-h'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).stdout.decode('utf-8')
print(out)
#this is equivalent to "az -h'
The above syntax won't work unless every single arg is a comma separated list of strings, I found a syntax I like alot more after reading how to do multiple args with python popen:
import subprocess
azcmd = "az ad sp create-for-rbac --name " + SPName + " --scopes /subscriptions/" + subscriptionid
out = subprocess.run(azcmd, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE).stdout.decode('utf-8')
print(out)

Answer 2

I faced the same problem while trying to save the log of Azure Container Instance. None of the above solutions worked exactly as they are. After debugging the azure cli python code
(File : \Python39\Lib\site-packages\azure\cli\command_modules\container\custom.py , function : container_logs() ), i see that the container logs are just printed to the console but not returned. If you want to save the logs to any variable, add the return line (Not exactly a great solution but works for now). Hoping MS Azure updates their azure cli in upcoming versions.
def container_logs(cmd, resource_group_name, name, container_name=None, follow=False):
"""Tail a container instance log. """
container_client = cf_container(cmd.cli_ctx)
container_group_client = cf_container_groups(cmd.cli_ctx)
container_group = container_group_client.get(resource_group_name, name)
# If container name is not present, use the first container.
if container_name is None:
container_name = container_group.containers[0].name
if not follow:
log = container_client.list_logs(resource_group_name, name, container_name)
print(log.content)
# Return the log
return(log.content)
else:
_start_streaming(
terminate_condition=_is_container_terminated,
terminate_condition_args=(container_group_client, resource_group_name, name, container_name),
shupdown_grace_period=5,
stream_target=_stream_logs,
stream_args=(container_client, resource_group_name, name, container_name, container_group.restart_policy))
With this modification and along with the above solutions given (Using the get_default_cli), we can store the log of the Azure container instance in a variable.
from azure.cli.core import get_default_cli
def az_cli(args_str):
args = args_str.split()
cli = get_default_cli()
res = cli.invoke(args)
if cli.result.result:
jsondata = cli.result.result
elif cli.result.error:
print(cli.result.error)

Answer 3

I think you can use the subprocess and call the az cli to get the output instead using get_default_cli.
import subprocess
import json
process = subprocess.Popen(['az','network', 'ddos-protection', 'list'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
out, err = process.communicate()
d = json.loads(out)
print(d)

Answer 4

Well, we can execute the Azure CLI commands in Python as shown below.
Here, the res variable usually stores a value of integer type and therefore we might not be able to access the json response. To store the response in a variable, we need to do cli.result.result.
from azure.cli.core import get_default_cli
def az_cli(args_str):
args = args_str.split()
cli = get_default_cli()
res = cli.invoke(args)```
if cli.result.result:
jsondata = cli.result.result
elif cli.result.error:
print(cli.result.error)