How to Build an Azure Function in PowerShell

How to Build an Azure Function in PowerShell

Azure Functions allow you to build event-driven, serverless applications with minimal overhead. If you work with PowerShell, you can leverage Azure Functions to automate tasks, process data, or integrate with cloud services. In this guide, we’ll walk through creating an Azure Function using PowerShell step by step.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have the following:

• An Azure subscription
• Azure Functions Core Tools installed
• PowerShell Core installed
• Azure PowerShell module installed
• Visual Studio Code or another code editor

I am using Visual Studio Code in this guide. We will need Azure Functions extension for Visual Studio Code to create and manage Azure Functions.

Step 1: Create a New Azure Function Project

1. Open a terminal and run:

func init MyFunctionApp --worker-runtime powershell

This initializes a new Azure Functions project with PowerShell as the runtime.

1. Navigate into the project folder:

cd MyFunctionApp

Step 2: Create a Function

1. Run the following command to create a new function:

func new --name MyHttpTrigger --template "HTTP trigger" --authlevel anonymous

This generates an HTTP-triggered PowerShell function.

1. Open MyHttpTrigger/run.ps1 and modify it as needed. The default function looks like this:

param($Request, $TriggerMetadata)

Push-OutputBinding -Name response -Value (@{
    StatusCode = 200
    Body       = "Hello from PowerShell Azure Function!"
})

This will provide a local URL (e.g., http://localhost:7071/api/MyHttpTrigger). Open it in your browser or use:

curl http://localhost:7071/api/MyHttpTrigger

or

Invoke-RestMethod -Uri http://localhost:7071/api/MyHttpTrigger

Step 3: Run the Function Locally

To test your function locally, run:

func start

Step 4: Deploy the Function to Azure

1. Sign in to Azure:

az login

1. Create a resource group:

az functionapp create --resource-group MyResourceGroup --consumption-plan-location westeurope --runtime powershell --name MyFunctionApp --storage-account mystorageaccount

1. Deploy the function:

func azure functionapp publish MyFunctionApp

Once deployed, you can access your function via the provided URL.

Conclusion

You’ve successfully created and deployed an Azure Function using PowerShell! This is just the beginning – you can extend this with environment variables, bindings, or integrate with Azure services like Storage, CosmosDB, or Event Grid. Explore the possibilities and automate your workflows with Azure Functions and PowerShell.