Description

While deploying the external portal in case of fresh installation, we encountered errors in various places, and deployment of the External Portal was not happening.

These errors started happening due to recent changes done by Microsoft Azure in their Az module and Azure CLI which we use in our external portal deployment scripts (Backward compatibility is broken by Microsoft Azure from these versions:- Azure CLI - 2.34.1 and Az module - 8.0.0 onwards). So, we have made changes in our 20.3 Release’s external portal deployment scripts to handle these errors, which started supporting the latest available versions of Azure CLI (2.38.0) and Az module (8.2.0).

As we always go for the installation of the latest Azure CLI and Az module while doing fresh external portal deployment, our deployment scripts, bundled in, Evolve versions lower than 20.3 Release are not compatible with the latest Azure CLI and Az module. Hence, end-users won’t be able to configure new External Portals with those versions. 

Applies To

Below 20.3 build

Cause

Latest changes done by Microsoft Azure in their Az module and Azure CLI in versions 8.0.0 and 2.34.1 respectively onwards.

Solution/Immediate Workaround

While deploying/configuring a new Fresh External Portal instance, customers can follow either one of the below mentioned 2 solutions/workarounds:

1. Now, the existing downloaded copy, of the external portal, of these files on the customer’s local drives (DeploymentScript.ps1 and SetStaticWebsite.ps1), need to be replaced with the new zip files (DeploymentScript.ps1 and SetStaticWebsite.ps1) attached to this article, and then customers can proceed with deployment of the external portal as per our existing process/steps.

Note: Replacement of these zip files will come after step 7, mentioned under the section “Evolve External Portal Deployment” of the original external portal deployment doc (Evolve External Portal Deployment attached).

2. Follow the below steps/workaround: -

    a.Uninstall the currently installed version of Azure CLI and install the older compatible version (i.e. version lower than Azure CLI - 2.34.1)

Go to the control panel and look for Microsoft Azure CLI -> Select -> Uninstall

Download the Older version of CLI and install the same using link (this link downloads 2.20.0 version) - https://azcliprod.blob.core.windows.net/msi/azure-cli-2.20.0.msi

b. Get older Az Module (version lower than 8.0.0), which was compatible with our previously bundled external portal deployment scripts, using the below PowerShell commands:

• Install-Module -Name Az -AllowClobber -Scope CurrentUser -RequiredVersion 7.5.0 (Installs the older compatible version, here we are installing the 7.5.0 version. Input A to allow installation of the module)   
• Get-Module Az.Cdn | Remove-Module (Remove the latest module from the PowerShell instance if already present, will give an error if not present, we can ignore the error)
• Import-Module -Name Az.Cdn -RequiredVersion '1.8.3' (Use the older compatible version)               

Note: Now, follow deployment instructions as per our existing defined process (Evolve External Portal Deployment document attached), in the same instance of PowerShell referred in the above steps.

Upgrading existing External Portal instance to version lower than Evolve 20.3 Release: -

1. If Azure CLI and Az module versions were kept the same (i.e. Azure CLI - 2.20.0 and Az Module - 7.5.0) as that of fresh installation of any of 20.2.x Evolve release – upgrade should work seamlessly without needing any additional steps/workarounds
2. But in case any third-party component installation, has updated the Azure CLI or Az modules to higher versions (i.e. Azure CLI - 2.34.1 and Az module - 8.0.0 onwards), try any one of the 2 workarounds mentioned under the new Fresh External Portal instance section above. The only additional step, if the customer decides to follow the first workaround, would be to change the value of the prereq key to “false”, present under the dsettings.json file, and post the replacement of new zip files (as mentioned in the first workaround), and then proceed with original deployment instructions (Evolve External Portal Deployment document attached).

Additional Information

The required zip file is attached to this Article.