Unable to use `az confcom` extention as it shows `docker process was not found`

[cYKatherine]

Hello, I tried to use this action to run az confcom acipolicygen --debug --approve-wildcards -a test.json --print-policy in inlineScript but it showed warning cli.azext_confcom.custom: The docker process was not found. Please start Docker.

I tried to check if docker was started using systemctl | grep running but systemctl wasn't installed in the docker image (I assume?).

Also from this article: https://jpetazzo.github.io/2015/09/03/do-not-use-docker-in-docker-for-ci/ I saw that it is not recommended to run docker inside docker, so I'm wondering does that mean there is no Docker running in this github action? Does that mean I can't run az confcom with this action? Is there any way to bypass this issue?

Thank you so much!

[MoChilia]

Hi @cYKatherine, as you mentioned, running docker inside docker is not recommended, so the azure/cli action does not support running docker commands inside. A current solution is to run these commands directly in bash. We may consider an enhancement to enable users to run Docker commands within azure/cli.

[MoChilia]

Similar issue to https://github.com/Azure/cli/issues/152.

[cYKatherine]

Hello @MoChilia , thank you for getting back to me.

Can I confirm it is not possible to run az confcom using this azure/cli action?

A side question is: is there any way to run a specific az version on bash? From this comment you left last year it seems that it's not possible, has anything been upgraded between now and then?

Thank you so much!

[MoChilia]

From the error message you provided, it appears that az confcom requires docker to start. Currently, this is not supported in the azure/cli action. Running a specific az version on bash can be a bit complex. You may refer to the downgrade scripts I have given in https://github.com/Azure/login/issues/372#issuecomment-2056289617.

[cYKatherine]

Thank you @MoChilia I used the instruction here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/install-azure-cli-linux?pivots=apt and it worked.

For anyone who might also need this, this is how my workflow looks like:

     - name: uninstall azure-cli 
        run: |
          sudo apt-get remove -y azure-cli

      - name: install azure-cli 2.61.0
        run: |
          sudo apt-get update
          sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release
          sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
          curl -sLS https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc |
            gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/microsoft.gpg > /dev/null
          sudo chmod go+r /etc/apt/keyrings/microsoft.gpg
          AZ_DIST=$(lsb_release -cs)
          echo "Types: deb
          URIs: https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/azure-cli/
          Suites: ${AZ_DIST}
          Components: main
          Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
          Signed-by: /etc/apt/keyrings/microsoft.gpg" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/azure-cli.sources
          sudo apt-get update
          sudo apt-get install azure-cli

          apt-cache policy azure-cli
          # Obtain the currently installed distribution
          AZ_DIST=$(lsb_release -cs)
          # Store an Azure CLI version of choice
          AZ_VER=2.61.0
          # Install a specific version
          sudo apt-get install azure-cli=${AZ_VER}-1~${AZ_DIST} --allow-downgrades

      - name: check azure-cli version
        run: |
          az --version