Version later than 3.5.15 breaking my pipeline

[gesnaud]

Hello there,

I have a pipeline to generate XLS and XML files from ARI.

I've based the pipeline on version 3.5.15 and tried the latest (3.6.17) and pretty all other versions between latest and 3.5.15.
The version are took from here: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/AzureResourceInventory/3.6.4

for example:

3.5.17:

Invoke-ARI: /home/vsts/work/_temp/5b2d8ebc-89c6-48d0-9a05-6e5a29f1b5e5.ps1:4
Line |
   4 |  Invoke-ARI -ReportDir "./" -ReportName Bleucloudlab -TenantID xxxxx …
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~
     | The term 'Invoke-ARI' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function,
     | script file, or executable program. Check the spelling of the name, or
     | if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

3.5.17 bis:

Import-Module: /home/vsts/work/_temp/5dd19c77-ece6-43c8-9eb0-4f5dc1aa673f.ps1:4
Line |
   4 |  Import-Module AzureResourceInventory
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | The specified module 'AzureResourceInventory' was not loaded because no
     | valid module file was found in any module directory.

3.6.4:

WARNING: Failed adding PivotTable 'P0': Cannot index into a null array.
WARNING: Failed adding chart for pivotable 'P0': Cannot bind argument to parameter 'PivotTable' because it is null.
Write-Error: /home/vsts/.local/share/powershell/Modules/AzureResourceInventory/3.6.4/modules/Private/3.ReportingFunctions/StyleFunctions/Start-ARIExcelCustomization.ps1:92
Line |
  92 |              Build-ARIExcelComObject -File $File
     |              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'ComObject'.

3.6.0:

There will be breaking changes from 12.1.0 to 13.4.0. Open https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2241373 and check the details.
Invoke-ARI: /home/vsts/work/_temp/c5e2537a-755b-49a6-be2f-0ed57c247018.ps1:4
Line |
   4 |  Invoke-ARI -ReportDir "./" -ReportName Bleucloudlab -TenantID xxxxx …
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~
     | The term 'Invoke-ARI' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function,
     | script file, or executable program. Check the spelling of the name, or
     | if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

The pipeline code innvoking ARI is the following:

 - task: AzurePowerShell@5
    displayName: 'Running ARI'
    inputs:
      azurePowerShellVersion: latestVersion
      azureSubscription: my_sc
      ScriptType: 'InlineScript'
      pwsh: true
      Inline: |
         Import-Module AzureResourceInventory # <===== This one is sometimes commented depending version used, like 3.5.17 (even if the doc mention to use it 🙃!)
         Invoke-ARI -ReportDir "./" -ReportName $(organizationName) -TenantID ${{ variables.tenantid }} -SubscriptionID ${{ variables.subscriptionid }} -DiagramFullEnvironment -SecurityCenter

Anything I can do or must stick on 3.5.15?

[Claudio-Merola]

Hello there @gesnaud

I'm not very experienced on running ARI with pipelines, but I can help investigate to see what is going on.

The error: 
Line |
  92 |              Build-ARIExcelComObject -File $File
     |              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'ComObject'.

I believe that can be ignored since I assume you don't have Excel Installed there. You can just add the parameter -Lite and it will prevent that error anyways.

The Import-Module was actually required for the version 3.6.0, 3.6.1 and 3.6.2 if I'm not mistaken. from version 3.6.3+ it should work fine without the Import-Module.

The Excel file itself is being created?

[gesnaud]

@Claudio-Merola : Yes the XLS file is created in 3.5.15. I could adjust my command line for later version but... Why such regression?

[Claudio-Merola]

Hello @gesnaud

But the Excel file is being created in the version 3.6.3+ ?

We drastically changed the way ARI was build in version 3.6.0.

In the earlier versions there was just a handful of module files, and some very large functions to orchestrate the inventory. (we made it that way just as a transition step between being a script and becoming a Powershell module).

But that structure is very difficult to troubleshoot, collaborate and goes against development good practices. So, in version 3.6.0 we made the final transition to a more robust approach for such large projects, which was basically a lot more functions and using dot sourcing, this way it would not be required to manually inform the functions that would be made available by the ARI module, but it would require the "Import-Module" before running the script.

But we later found it would make almost impossible to run ARI in Cloudshell, so in version 3.6.3 we used a mixed approach, where some of the functions were manually informed and the others would be dot sourced into the module.

That is why the Import-Module is not required after version 3.6.3

[gesnaud]

Hello @Claudio-Merola !

Nice advices!! It's working 👍🏻

• Set version to 3.6.4
• Remove Import-Module
• Adding -Lite to ARI command line

==> My pipeline is now delivering each time the files (previously I had to launch pipeline many times to have files...) with right name (previously, xml file was splitted in two files Organization.xml & Subscriptions.xml and Subscriptions.xml was often empty)!

Many thanks @Claudio-Merola !

Issue can be closed!

[bkarakashev]

Hi @gesnaud, how did you install/set the version to 3.6.4?
Sorry if this is a bit of a noob question, I am not using much of Powershell.
I am running this from powershell on my Macbook.

[gesnaud]

Hello @bkarakashev !

Very simple :)

Install-Module -Name AzureResourceInventory -RequiredVersion ${{ variables.ARIversion }} -Force -AllowClobber -Scope CurrentUser

Just replace ${{ variables.ARIversion }} by 3.6.4!

The place to know for your journey ;):
https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/AzureResourceInventory/3.6.4