Setup Guide

Canonical pre-event readiness page for APEX MicroHack participants.

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Who This Is For

• Participants: Complete this page before event day so your team can start on time.
• Team leads: Use it to confirm your team’s subscription, quota, and cleanup ownership.
• Self-guided learners: Follow the same steps if you are exploring the workshop outside a live event.

Caution

Your working repository must be created from the azure-agentic-infraops-accelerator template, not from this documentation repository. If you cloned this repo directly, you have the wrong starting point.

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Critical Blockers at a Glance

If any item below fails, your team is not ready to participate:

• No GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise license.
• No Azure subscription with the required access.
• More than one team trying to share the same subscription.
• Not enough quota in swedencentral.
• A Dev Container that does not open successfully.

Resolve blockers before event day. Do not treat them as day-of issues.

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Prerequisites

GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise

Caution

APEX requires a GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise license. Other SKUs do not include the required functionality. See GitHub Copilot Plans.

Plan	Custom agents	Compatible
Copilot Free	No	No
Copilot Pro	No	No
Copilot Business	Yes	Yes
Copilot Pro+	No	No
Copilot Enterprise	Yes	Yes

Compare plans: GitHub Copilot Plans

Tip

GitHub Copilot can be billed directly through your Azure subscription. See GitHub Copilot billing for setup instructions.

1. Go to github.com/settings/copilot
2. Confirm your subscription shows Business or Enterprise.
3. Ensure “Copilot Chat in the IDE” is enabled

Setup guide: VS Code Copilot Setup

Azure subscription and access

Caution

This is a bring-your-own-subscription event. Azure is required because teams deploy real infrastructure, validate quota, apply governance constraints, and clean up real resources.

Subscription type	Compatible
Azure in CSP	Yes
Enterprise Agreement (EA)	Yes
Pay As You Go	Yes
Visual Studio subscription	Yes
Azure Free Account (with credit card)	Yes
Azure Pass	No

• One Azure subscription per team is the only supported model. Shared subscriptions are not supported.
• Owner is the preferred role because facilitators may need to deploy Azure Policy assignments for governance challenges.
• If your organisation restricts Owner, confirm with your facilitator whether Contributor plus Resource Policy Contributor is accepted for your event.
• Your subscription must have enough quota in swedencentral. See Quota and Estimated Costs.

Verify with:

az login
az account show --output table

Core tools

Docker-compatible container runtime

GitHub Copilot custom agents run inside a Dev Container, so you need a local container runtime.

• Windows or macOS: Docker Desktop
• Linux: Docker Engine
• Alternatives if Docker Desktop is not an option: Rancher Desktop, Podman Desktop, or Colima

Verify with:

docker --version

Visual Studio Code on the host

Install VS Code version 1.100 or newer, then install the host extensions below before opening the container:

Extension	ID	Why it matters
Dev Containers	ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers	Required to open any Dev Container
GitHub Copilot Chat	github.copilot-chat	Handles host-side sign-in and licensing

Install both at once:

code --install-extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers
code --install-extension github.copilot-chat

Extensions such as Bicep, Azure CLI Tools, PowerShell, and Azure Resource Groups are installed automatically from the Dev Container definition.

Azure CLI, PowerShell 7, and Git

These tools are preinstalled inside the Dev Container. Install them locally only if you plan to work outside the container.

• Azure CLI: install instructions
• PowerShell 7: install instructions
• Git: git-scm.com

Recommended checks:

az version
pwsh --version
git --version

Network access

Ensure your network allows outbound HTTPS to the following services:

Service	Domains
GitHub	github.com, api.github.com
GitHub Copilot	copilot.github.com, *.githubusercontent.com
Azure	*.azure.com, *.microsoft.com, login.microsoftonline.com
Docker	docker.io, registry-1.docker.io

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Participation Gate

Tip

Run this gate before the event starts. Every item below is a true blocker.

#	Check	How to verify	Why it blocks
1	GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise license	github.com/settings/copilot shows Business or Enterprise	Custom agents require a GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise license — other SKUs do not include the required functionality (plans)
2	Azure subscription with required access	az login && az account show works	You cannot deploy or validate infrastructure without it
3	One subscription per team	Confirm with your facilitator or team lead	Shared subscriptions are not supported
4	Quota in swedencentral	az vm list-usage -l swedencentral -o table	Insufficient quota blocks deployment
5	Dev Container opens successfully	F1 → Dev Containers: Reopen in Container	All challenge work happens inside the container

Caution

If any gate item fails, resolve it before the event or contact your facilitator immediately.

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Setup Steps

Tip

Complete all steps below before event day. Steps 1 and 2 pull and build the Dev Container image and should not be left until the morning of the workshop.

1. Create your working repository

Tip

New to GitHub or WSL? Follow the Beginner Setup (Windows) walkthrough for a step-by-step guide with screenshots. The instructions below are the CLI-based path.

1. Go to the azure-agentic-infraops-accelerator template
2. Click Use this template → Create a new repository
3. Clone your new repository and open it in VS Code:

git clone https://github.com/<your-org-or-user>/<your-new-repo>.git
cd <your-new-repo>
code .

4. If the repository still contains template placeholders, run npm run init:template from the repo root. If you do not have Node.js locally, run it after reopening in the dev container.

When VS Code opens, accept the “Reopen in Container” prompt.

Dev Container

2. Pull and build the Dev Container

Caution

Do this before the event. The initial image pull and build takes several minutes and requires a reliable network connection.

1. Press F1 → run Dev Containers: Reopen in Container
2. Wait for the container to build (watch progress in the terminal)
3. Once complete, verify the core tools:

az version
bicep --version
pwsh --version

3. Sign in to Azure

az login
az account set --subscription "<your-subscription-id>"
az account show --query "{Name:name, SubscriptionId:id, TenantId:tenantId}" -o table

4. Enable custom agents

Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+,) and add:

{
  "github.copilot.chat": {
    "customAgentInSubagent": {
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

5. Verify your toolchain

Verify the core tools manually:

az version
bicep --version
node --version
npm --version
gh --version

6. Start the workflow

Open Copilot Chat (Ctrl+Alt+I) and choose the entry point that matches your working repo:

• If your repository created from the accelerator template includes 01-Orchestrator, you can start there.
• If not, go straight to the specific agent named on each challenge page.

To start with the orchestrator, select 01-Orchestrator and prompt it with:

Describe the Azure infrastructure project you want to build.

The accelerator workflow uses 7 steps with approval gates:

1. Requirements — capture what you need
2. Architecture — WAF assessment and cost estimate
3. Design — diagrams and ADRs (optional)
4. Planning — Bicep implementation plan with governance
5. Code — AVM-first Bicep templates
6. Deploy — Azure provisioning with what-if preview
7. Documentation — as-built suite

The microhack scores that same work as 8 challenges. Challenge 4 is the DR curveball that revisits the delivery path midway through the event, so always follow the agent and artifact guidance on the active challenge page.

Explore complete sample artifacts in the agent-output/_sample/ directory (created during the workshop).

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Ready-to-Start Check

Use this quick check after you finish setup steps:

• My repository was created from the template repo, not from the docs repo.
• The Dev Container opens and the terminal tools load correctly.
• az account show works inside the container.
• The agent dropdown appears in Copilot Chat.
• My team has exactly one Azure subscription assigned.
• My team knows who will own cleanup at the end of the event.

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Quota and Estimated Costs

Caution

Verify subscription quota before the microhack. Quota issues are one of the most common reasons teams lose time.

Per-team resource profile

Resource type	Quantity	SKU or tier	Region
Resource groups	1-2	N/A	Sweden Central
App Service plan	1	P1v4 or S1	Sweden Central
App Services	1-2	N/A	Sweden Central
Azure SQL server	1	N/A	Sweden Central
Azure SQL database	1	S0 or Basic	Sweden Central
Storage accounts	1-2	Standard_LRS	Sweden Central
Key Vault	1	Standard	Sweden Central
Application Insights	1	N/A	Sweden Central
Log Analytics workspace	1	Per-GB	Sweden Central

Optional Challenge 4 disaster recovery resources

Resource type	Quantity	SKU or tier	Region
Resource groups	1	N/A	Germany West Central
App Service plan	1	P1v4 or S1	Germany West Central
App Services	1	N/A	Germany West Central
Azure SQL database replica	1	S0 or Basic	Germany West Central
Storage account	1	Standard_GRS	Sweden Central

Optional advanced services such as Front Door, Application Gateway, WAF, or Traffic Manager may increase quota and spend if your team chooses them.

Check quota and request increases

Use the Azure portal search for Quotas, filter by region, and review the resource families your team expects to deploy.

Useful CLI checks:

az vm list-usage --location swedencentral --output table
az storage account list --query "length(@)"

Common issues:

Issue	Response
”Subscription not registered”	az provider register --namespace Microsoft.Web
”Quota exceeded”	Request an increase in Azure portal → Quotas
”Region not available”	Confirm with your facilitator before changing regions
”SKU not available in region”	Pick an approved alternative SKU

Caution

Request quota increases at least one week before the event when possible.

Estimated event cost

Configuration	Estimated cost for ~8 hours
Single team, core path	€5-10
Single team with Challenge 4 DR work	€10-20

Delete all event resources immediately after the workshop to avoid unnecessary spend.

Optional pre-event quota smoke test

az login
az account set --subscription "<your-subscription-id>"
az group create --name rg-quota-test --location swedencentral
az group delete --name rg-quota-test --yes --no-wait

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Cleanup

Caution

The team lead is responsible for cleanup. Before leaving the event, delete team resources and confirm cleanup is complete. Do not leave workshop resources running overnight.

Cleanup steps:

1. Delete all resource groups created during the microhack:

   az group delete -n rg-freshconnect-dev-swc --yes --no-wait
   # Repeat for any additional resource groups (e.g., secondary region)
   az group delete -n rg-freshconnect-dev-gwc --yes --no-wait

2. Ask your facilitator to remove governance policies from the team subscription. If you are running the workshop as a facilitator or self-guided owner, use the Governance Scripts reference in this docs repo.

3. Verify cleanup is complete:

   az group list --query "[?starts_with(name, 'rg-freshconnect')]" -o table
   # Expected: empty result

Cleanup must be confirmed before the team leaves the event venue.

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Need Help?

• Ask your facilitator if you are blocked on subscription access, policy permissions, or quota approval.
• Use the Copilot Guide for agent and prompt usage during the workshop.
• Use Troubleshooting if your container, Azure auth, or tooling fails.
• Review Workshop Prep after setup if you still need the scenario and team-role context.