Does Azure Automation support Write-Information?

Question

I want to write info logs into Azure Automation job logs. I've created the simple PowerShell runbook

$InformationPreference = "Continue"
Write-Information "Hello info" 
Write-Verbose "Hello Verbose"
Write-Warning "Hello warning"
Write-Error "Hello error"

And in runbook execution All logs I see only verbose, warning and error logs

If to disable runbook Verbose logs I see only warnings and errors. Locally it works fine but not in Azure. I've also tried Write-Information "Hello info" -InformationAction Continue - didn't help.

Write-Information appeared in PowerShell 5.0. I've checked the PS version in Azure Automation sandbox machine by using $PSVersionTable - it's more than 5. So, should work.

Do you know if they support it or not?

Answer 1

If you want to write info logs into Azure Automation job logs, I suggest you use write-output. For details, you can refer to this article.

I'm not sure if write-information is supported or not in runbook. I test it at my side, as well as I test the cmdlet write-host which is a wrapper for write-information. But no message output for both of them.

A support ticket is raised for confirmation from MS.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Azure Automation does not fully support the Information stream at this point. PowerShell 5 support is not enough: your runbook will not fail, but Automation will not capture and store the Information stream content, and this is why you will not see it in the logs.

Answer 3

I do wish Write-Information was available in Azure Automation.

Using Write-Output in a function that you want to return something else (like a Boolean) is quite problematic.