Azure Automation PowerShell variables

I updated an older blog post of mine with new info thanks to a reader. That, plus the fact that I am updating my own runbooks made me capture some of the environment and other variables in Azure Automation for my own reference. Thought I’d put them here as a table.

Variable	PowerShell 7.2 (Azure)	PowerShell 7.2 (HRW)	PowerShell 5.x (Azure)	PowerShell 5.x (HRW)	PowerShell 7.1 (Azure)	PowerShell 7.1 (HRW)
$env:AZUREPS_HOST_ENVIRONMENT	AzureAutomation	AzureAutomation/	AzureAutomation	AzureAutomation/	AzureAutomation	Not present
$env:COMPUTERNAME	SANDBOXHOST-***	The name of the HRW machine	SANDBOXHOST-***	The name of the HRW machine	SANDBOXHOST-***	The name of the HRW machine
$env:PSPrivateMetadata	Not present	Job Id	Not present	Not present	Not present	Job Id
$PSPrivateMetadata.JobId	Job Id	Not present	Job Id	Job Id	Not present	Not present
$PSVersionTable	Present and contains info	Present and contains info	Present and contains info	Present and contains info	Present and contains info	Present and contains info

So it looks like PowerShell 7.1 running on Azure sandbox has no correct way of finding the job Id of the running job. It’s not supported, so not much of an issue I guess – best to use PowerShell 7.2 instead of 7.1.

I think the following code can be used to find the job Id.

$jobId = $null

if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -eq 5) {
    # Need the Guid specifically, unlike PowerShell 7.x
    $jobId = $PSPrivateMetadata.JobId.Guid
}

if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -eq 7) {
    # We are in PowerShell 7.x

    if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Minor -gt 1) {
        # We are in PowerShell 7.2 and above
        if ($env:AZUREPS_HOST_ENVIRONMENT -eq "AzureAutomation/") {
            # We are in a Hybrid Runbook Worker
            $jobId = $env:PSPrivateMetadata
        } else {
            # We are in Azure sandbox
            $jobId = $PSPrivateMetadata.JobId
        }    
    } else {
        # This will be empty for PowerShell 7.1 running in Azure sandbox
        $jobId = $env:PSPrivateMetadata
    }
}

if ($jobId) { 
    # Do something 
}

$jobId = $null

if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -eq 5) {

# Need the Guid specifically, unlike PowerShell 7.x

$jobId = $PSPrivateMetadata.JobId.Guid

}

if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -eq 7) {

# We are in PowerShell 7.x

if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Minor -gt 1) {

# We are in PowerShell 7.2 and above

if ($env:AZUREPS_HOST_ENVIRONMENT -eq "AzureAutomation/") {

# We are in a Hybrid Runbook Worker

$jobId = $env:PSPrivateMetadata

} else {

# We are in Azure sandbox

$jobId = $PSPrivateMetadata.JobId

}

} else {

# This will be empty for PowerShell 7.1 running in Azure sandbox

$jobId = $env:PSPrivateMetadata

}

if ($jobId) {

# Do something

}