Azure PowerShell - How to Create Queue If Not Exists - powershell

Question

I am using Azure PowerShell to create and add entries to an Azure queue, following example here: MSDN: Using Azure PowerShell with Azure Storage - How to manage Azure queues .
Here is my PowerShell script:
$storeAuthContext = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName '[my storage account name]' -StorageAccountKey '[my storage account key'
$myQueue = New-AzureStorageQueue –Name 'myqueue' -Context $storeAuthContext
$queueMessage = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Queue.CloudQueueMessage -ArgumentList 'Hello'
$myQueue.CloudQueue.AddMessage($queueMessage)
This works fine the first time I run it.
Second time, I get this:
New-AzureStorageQueue : Queue 'myqueue' already exists. At line:1
char:12
+ $myQueue = New-AzureStorageQueue –Name 'myqueue' -Context $storeAuthContext
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ResourceExists: (:) [New-AzureStorageQueue], ResourceAlreadyExistException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ResourceAlreadyExistException,Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Commands.Storage.Queue.NewAzureStorageQueueCommand
In .NET Azure Storage API there is cloudqueue.createifnotexists (MSDN), but I cannot find the equivalent in Azure PowerShell.
What is the best way in PowerShell to create Azure storage queue if it does not already exist, otherwise get reference to the existing queue?

Answer 1

Afaik there is no CreateIfNotExist flag through the PowerShell module.
You can easily do the following to achieve the same:
$queue = Get-AzureStorageQueue -name 'myName' -Context $storeAuthContext
if(-not $queue){
# your code to create the queue
}
If you want to surpress errors and always try to create it (regardless if it exists or not); you should be able to use the -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue when creating the queue.
I would recommend the first approach though as it's a better practice.

Answer 2

As of 2017.03.14, the accepted answer did not work in a Powershell Azure Function, the Get-AzureStorageQueue throws an exception if the specified queue does not exist.
Example:
Here's the code
$storageAccountName = $env:AzureStorageAccountName
Write-Output ("storageAccountName: {0}" -f $storageAccountName)
$storageAccountKey = $env:AzureStorageAccountKey
Write-Output ("storageAccountKey: {0}" -f $storageAccountKey)
$storageQueueName = $env:AzureStorageQueueName
Write-Output ("storageAccountKey: {0}" -f $storageAccountKey)
Write-Output "Creating storage context"
$azureStorageContext = New-AzureStorageContext $storageAccountName - StorageAccountKey $storageAccountKey
Write-Output "Retrieving queue"
$azureStorageQueue = Get-AzureStorageQueue -Name $storageQueueName –Context $azureStorageContext
Here's the log
2017-03-15T04:16:57.021 Get-AzureStorageQueue : Can not find queue 'my-queue-name'.
at run.ps1: line 21
+ Get-AzureStorageQueue
+ _____________________
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (:) [Get-AzureStorageQueue], ResourceNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ResourceNotFoundException,Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Commands.Storage.Queue.GetAzureStorageQueueCommand
2017-03-15T04:16:57.021 Function completed (Failure, Id=58f35998-ebe0-4820-ac88-7d6ca42833df)
Resolution
I had to filter the results and only create the queue if it didn't exist. here's how to solve it:
Write-Output "Retrieving queue"
# Get-AzureStorageQueue returns an exception if the queue does not exists when passing -Name, so instead
# we need to get them all, filter by Name, and if null, create it
$azureStorageQueue = Get-AzureStorageQueue –Context $azureStorageContext | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $storageQueueName}
if ($azureStorageQueue -eq $null)
{
Write-Output "Queue does not exist, creating it"
$azureStorageQueue = New-AzureStorageQueue -Name $storageQueueName -Context $azureStorageContext
}