A constructed URL does not work in Runbook but does in ISE when connecting to a sharepoint site

Question

A constructed URL does not work in Runbook but does in ISE when connecting to a sharepoint site

Jurgen Verhelst 331

Hi,

Trying to use a runbook in Azure Automation for creating and modifying sharepoint sites

An URL I construct using a static and a variable part when connecting to the newly created site works on desktop ISE but not in the runbook

New-PNPSite -type Teamsite -Title $SiteColTitle -Alias $SiteColName
Connect-PnPOnline -url -Site "https://fqdn/sites/$SiteColName" -Credentials  $myCred

throws this error;

Connect-PnPOnline : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'https://fqdn/sites/Test_003'. 
At line:25 char:1
+ Connect-PnPOnline -url -Site "https://fqdn/sites/$Si ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Connect-PnPOnline], ParameterBindingException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,PnP.PowerShell.Commands.Base.ConnectOnline

I do see the new site in sharepoint admin active sites, so it is created, but connecting to it afterwards fails

When trying with the full URL it does work but I want to reuse the $SiteColName and not have to make a $SiteColURL as well...

does constructing an URL work differently in a runbook then in ISE on my desktop?

Thanks!

merry Xmas! :)

Accepted answer

1 additional answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Baker Kong-MSFT 3,801

Hi @JurgenVerhelstezNetworking-5458,

I suggest you use the following syntax:

Connect-PnPOnline -Url

Not Connect-PnPOnline -url -Site "https://fqdn/sites/$SiteColName". Based on the doc, there is no -site paremeter.

Best Regards,
Baker Kong

If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Jurgen Verhelst 331 Reputation points

2020-12-25T16:16:56.867+00:00

OMG, must have been a copy past error. 2 lines before I did geet authenticated... without the -Site, no idea why I did not catch that myself.

removed the -site and all went fine

thanks

Answer 2

trevorseward 11,711

In addition to @Baker Kong-MSFT 's answer, you shouldn't be using username/password. I wrote an end-to-end on how to use Managed Identities and Client Certificate for PnP provisioning.

https://thesharepointfarm.com/2020/12/sharepoint-azure-pnp-provisioning/

Jurgen Verhelst 331 Reputation points

2020-12-25T16:17:01.357+00:00

Hi @trevorseward ,

Kind of new to this but I am using credentials stored in Azure, not in the script. or is that not what you wanted to tell me?

thanks
trevorseward 11,711 Reputation points

2020-12-25T16:50:14.047+00:00

Using username/password for authenticating to services is considered bad practice. The method I'm showing in the blog post is using Client ID + Certificate to provision sites using Azure Automation (+using Client ID + Secret, which isn't as good but that is the only available method for Azure Logic Apps, besides user/pass). The additional advantage of this is nothing is tied to a particular user, unlike using Power Automate or using user credentials in the provisioning process.

The blog post provides an end-to-end to provision PnP templates. Site Script/Design -> Azure Logic Apps -> Azure Automation -> PnP template provisioning.

It's fairly inexpensive to run. This will allow you to select a Site Design when creating the site (or after from the Gear -> Site designs menu) to provision your PnP template.
Jurgen Verhelst 331 Reputation points

2020-12-25T18:19:03.74+00:00

Aha,!

that might be why I now get

Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate : Please provide consent to the PnP Management Shell application with
'Register-PnPManagementShellAccess'

and you can't run register-pnpmanagementshellaccess in AA as it seems it will try to open a browser to identify the user

well, a quick dive in to getting a site setup using AA is becoming a longer road then I imagined. but I'm learning, thanks to you guys :)

I will give your article a try but its a lenghty on e, so after diner :)

Share via

A constructed URL does not work in Runbook but does in ISE when connecting to a sharepoint site

1 additional answer

Your answer