Start-AzAutomationRunbook passing python parameters out of order and breaks script

Question

I have a powershell runbook in Automation with the following workflow:

1) Authenticate to Azure Resources
2) Retrieve creds from vaults
3) Call Python runbook (in same automation account) using those creds

The first two steps work perfectly. The isolated Python script (when fed the correct data) works perfectly. Step 3 fails, because when I pass a dictionary with the 4 params required by the script - they are passed in the wrong order. So my execution looks something like this:

$params = @{"Key1"="ValueForPosition1";"Key2"="ValueForPosition2";"Key3"="ValueForPosition3";"Key4"="ValueForPosition4"}
Start-AzAutomationRunbook -AutomationAccountName "Contoso17" -Name "RunbkPy01" -ResourceGroupName "ResourceGroup01" -Parameters $params

This fails because on line 2, the params are passed out of order (presumably, since dictionaries are inherently unordered). How can I get around this?

Answer 1

@Kenneth Huddleston - Thanks again for raising the doc update request on this issue.

We have updated the documentation https://github.com/Azure/azure-powershell/issues/20408.

Hope this helps. and please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.

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Answer 2

I found the solution using this article: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/use-powershell-to-create-ordered-dictionary/. All that was needed is to define the dictionary as ordered. So, instead of dict = @{}, it would be dict = [ordered]@{}.

It should have been obvious, in hind-sight. My own post called out the need for the dictionary to be 'ordered'. lol

I would like to suggest that this nugget of information be added to the MS documentation here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.automation/start-azautomationrunbook?view=azps-9.2.0 ?

Specifically, in step 2 of running a Python Automation Runbook - an example is given of how to pass parameters. This 'ordered' accelerator is not used in the example, and I think that contributed to my confusion. Just a suggestion.