Determine latest API version for a resource provider

Azure Resource Manager templates are great to deploy one or more resources to a resource group.

A mandatory part of an ARM template is the resources section that defines the resource types that are deployed or updated. Here is an example:

{
    "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
    "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
    "resources": [
        {
            "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts",
            "name": "myuniquestorageaccountname",
            "apiVersion": "2016-01-01",
            "location": "West Europe",
            "sku": {
                "name": "Standard_LRS"
            },
            "kind": "Storage",
            "properties": {}
        }
    ]
}

The name of a resource type has the following format: {resource-provider}/{resource-type}. In this example Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts. The apiVersion specifies the version of the API that is used to deploy/manage the resource.

A resource provider offers a set of operations to deploy and manage resources using a REST API. If a resource provider adds new features, it releases a new version of the API. Therefore, if you have to utilize new features you may have to use the latest API Version. To determine the latest version of a resource type you can use the following Get-AzureRmResourceProviderLatestApiVersion cmdlet:

function Get-AzureRmResourceProviderLatestApiVersion {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    [Alias()]
    [OutputType([string])]
    Param
    (
        [Parameter(ParameterSetName = 'Full', Mandatory = $true, Position = 0)]
        [string]$Type,

        [Parameter(ParameterSetName = 'ProviderAndType', Mandatory = $true, Position = 0)]
        [string]$ResourceProvider,

        [Parameter(ParameterSetName = 'ProviderAndType', Mandatory = $true, Position = 1)]
        [string]$ResourceType,

        [switch]$IncludePreview
    )

    # retrieving the resource providers is time consuming therefore we store
    # them in a script variable to accelerate subsequent requests.
    if (-not $script:resourceProvider) {
        $script:resourceProvider = Get-AzureRmResourceProvider
    }

    if ($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName -eq 'Full') {
        $ResourceProvider = ($Type -replace "\/.*")
        $ResourceType = ($Type -replace ".*?\/(.+)", '$1')
    }

    $provider = $script:resourceProvider |
    Where-Object {
        $_.ProviderNamespace -eq $ResourceProvider -and
        $_.ResourceTypes.ResourceTypeName -eq $ResourceType
    }

    if ($IncludePreview) {
        $provider.ResourceTypes.ApiVersions[0]
    }
    else {
        $provider.ResourceTypes.ApiVersions | Where-Object {
            $_ -notmatch '-preview'
        } | Select-Object -First 1
    }
}

You can now determine the latest API Version using either the full type:

Get-AzureRmResourceProviderLatestApiVersion -Type Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts

Or bypassing the Resource Provider and Resource Type:

Get-AzureRmResourceProviderLatestApiVersion -ResourceProvider Microsoft.Storage -ResourceType storageAccounts

Finally, to include preview versions you can append the -IncludePreview switch:

Get-AzureRmResourceProviderLatestApiVersion -Type Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts -IncludePreview

You can download the script from my GitHub repository.

Additional information: Resource providers and types

Published by Martin Brandl