Configure Azure PowerShell global settings

Azure PowerShell supports several global settings like disabling breaking change warning messages. Before Az PowerShell module version 9, there wasn't a centralized or granular way to configure global settings for Azure PowerShell.

Centralized configuration

The Az PowerShell module version 9 and higher includes cmdlets for managing the configuration of global settings for Azure PowerShell. These *-AzConfig cmdlets are part of the Az.Accounts PowerShell module:

• Get-AzConfig
• Update-AzConfig
• Export-AzConfig
• Import-AzConfig
• Clear-AzConfig

Granular settings

You can apply settings that are only effective in a particular scope. The valid values for the Scope parameter are:

• Current User. The default when applying a setting.
• Process. Setting is only applied to the current PowerShell session.
• Default. Readonly scope where the default value hasn't been changed.
• Environment. Readonly scope where the value has been configured via an environment variable.

Besides scopes, you can apply the settings to all Az PowerShell modules or only a single module. With the AppliesTo parameter, you can specify how broad you want the setting applied. The value Az indicates the setting is applied to all modules available that are part of Azure PowerShell.

To disable the breaking change warning message for cmdlets in the Az.Compute module, use the Update-AzConfig cmdlet with the DisplayBreakingChangeWarning and AppliesTo parameters as shown in the following example.

Update-AzConfig -DisplayBreakingChangeWarning $false -AppliesTo Az.Compute

In this scenario, the breaking change warning message remains active for cmdlets in all Az PowerShell modules except Az.Compute.

Default subscription

By default, when you authenticate to Azure, all subscriptions that you can access are retrieved. The first subscription that's returned by Azure is used unless you specify a subscription with Connect-AzAccount. This behavior can be dangerous, for example if the first subscription returned is a production environment.

To configure your default subscription, you use the Update-AzConfig cmdlet with the DefaultSubscriptionForLogin parameter as shown in the following example.

Update-AzConfig -DefaultSubscriptionForLogin <Subscription ID or Name>

Note

Not to be confused with the subscription of the default context, the DefaultSubscriptionForLogin configuration takes effect only when authenticating to Azure.

Replicating settings

To replicate your settings from one environment to another, you use the Export-AzConfig cmdlet to export the settings to a JSON file.

Export-AzConfig -Path $HOME\AzConfig.json

To import your settings, use the Import-AzConfig cmdlet and reference the previously exported JSON file.

Import-AzConfig -Path $HOME\AzConfig.json

Clearing configuration

To reset the configuration setting of one or more Azure PowerShell global settings to the default, use the Clear-AzConfig cmdlet. In the following example, the DefaultSubscriptionForLogin setting is cleared.

Clear-AzConfig -DefaultSubscriptionForLogin