Configure AzureCLI to work with OrgID on Mac / Linux

I looked up from a customer presentation earlier today and saw a sea of “fruit” beacon lights staring at me from the audience. In the past I would have been concerned as I would have had to qualify what works and what doesn’t work with “technology X” or “Service Y” on a non Microsoft platform.

I don’t have to worry about that anymore – things have changed. <phew>

If you are a Microsoft technology person and you want to interact at scale with Azure services, your tool of choice is probably going to be PowerShell with ARM (Azure Resource Manager) templates. If you are a NON-Microsoft technology person, you probably don’t want to spin up a windows VM just to run PowerShell to get stuff done.  You should be using AzureCLI.

But wait – we came across an issue with trying to authenticate against an Azure subscription using a “Microsoft Account” (formerly known as LiveID) like in an MSDN subscription or a Free Trial – things work great from the Azure Portal.  It’s not so great from AzureCLI – it errors out.  Why? You need to use an OrgID, not MSFT account.  There is a link to a generic AzureCLI document which has another LINK on how to setup an OrgID for Mac/Linux.

While it kinda makes sense – how about a SIMPLER video? I asked my friend Boris Baryshnikov to make one for me (as he uses a Mac and the AzureCLI more than I do). Have a look and solve your authentication issue TODAY.