Feature Request: Reconnect and Resume Previous Session Logs in Azure Cloud Shell

[timwu-cc]

Current

During IaC deployments or command execution in the Azure Cloud Shell, users may encounter disconnection issues, resulting in the loss of session logs displayed in the console. If the deployment completes or fails during the disconnection, users are forced to manually investigate the deployment state. This often leads to additional troubleshooting efforts and, in some cases, the need to restart parts of the process due to the absence of retained execution logs in the console.

While there are workarounds available to keep the session alive, these methods are not officially supported by Azure Cloud Shell and may introduce risks or complexities. I would like to inquire if the Azure team has plans to introduce a feature that addresses this limitation. Such a feature would bring significant value to users who rely on the Azure Cloud Shell for managing deployments and executing commands.

We are keen to understand if this feature is on the Azure roadmap and whether it aligns with Azure’s vision for enhancing Cloud Shell usability.

Expect behavior

Azure should introduce a native feature, similar to solutions available in AWS and GCP, that allows users to reconnect to a previous session and access the logs displayed prior to the disconnection. This feature would enable users to seamlessly continue monitoring their deployment or command execution without requiring additional investigation or process restarts. Implementing this functionality would greatly enhance user experience and reduce operational overhead during deployments and command executions in the Azure Cloud Shell.

[mbifeld]

Hi @timwu-cc, thank you for the feature request! Right now, the Cloud Shell container's lifecycle is 4-8 hours. So ideally even if your session times out, if you reconnect within a few hours, you should be reconnected to the same container and be able to view the command history. Is this not the experience you are seeing?

We do hope to offer the ability to adjust timeouts and container lifecycles so that users have more control over it. While it's in the roadmap, I can't give a confident ETA since it's at least a year out. To understand your ask more, do you want to be able to view the command logs of past sessions or fully reconnect to a past session (Ex: you ran var=true 2 weeks ago, do you want to see that this command was run, or do you want to open a Cloud Shell session and have var be set to true?). In either case, how far back is useful for you?