Azure automation - credentials delivered by Get-PSAutomationCredential don't work with Add-AzureAccount?

Question

I'm modifying a gallery runbook that copies a live database to a test database on a schedule. It's failing at the first hurdle; authenticating and selecting the relevatn azure subscription

The runbook looks like this:

$Cred = Get-AutomationPSCredential -Name 'automationCredential'

Write-Output "UN: $($Cred.Username)"

Add-AzureAccount -Credential $Cred

I've used the portal credentials blade to create a credential named "automationCredential". For the username and password I supplied the username/pw that I log into the azure portal with. Note: this is NOT a school/work microsoft account, but a personal one

I can tell the call to Get-PSAutomationCredential is working out, because the Write-Ouput call shows the correct value

Add-AzureAccount however, delivers the following error:

Add-AzureAccount : unknown_user_type: Unknown User Type At
Set-DailyDatabaseRestore:22 char:22 CategoryInfo          :
CloseError: (:) [Add-AzureAccount], AadAuthenticationFailedException
FullyQualifiedErrorId :
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Commands.Profile.AddAzureAccount

Any pointers how to get a working credential?

Answer 1

Have you tried using the resource manager version off the login cmdlet (Add-AzureRmAccount)?

Answer 2

According to your description, it seems that your account is a Microsoft account(such as *@outlook.com, *@hotmail.com). Microsoft does not support non-interactive login. It is also unsafe for you to use your account to login your subscription directly. For a runbook, you could use the following codes to logon.

$connectionName = "AzureRunAsConnection"
try
{
    # Get the connection "AzureRunAsConnection "
    $servicePrincipalConnection=Get-AutomationConnection -Name $connectionName         

    "Logging in to Azure..."
    Add-AzureRmAccount `
        -ServicePrincipal `
        -TenantId $servicePrincipalConnection.TenantId `
        -ApplicationId $servicePrincipalConnection.ApplicationId `
        -CertificateThumbprint $servicePrincipalConnection.CertificateThumbprint 
}
catch {
    if (!$servicePrincipalConnection)
    {
        $ErrorMessage = "Connection $connectionName not found."
        throw $ErrorMessage
    } else{
        Write-Error -Message $_.Exception
        throw $_.Exception
    }
}

In above code, you need use connection AzureRunAsConnection, it is created by Azure default, you could use it directly, you could check this connection, it includes your subscription information.

Also, you could create a new connection, please refer to this link.