The first post is the updated SDK and PowerShell cmdlets for MSBuild and Azure.

The second is a walk through showing how to automatically build and deploy your Windows Azure applications to multiple accounts and use configuration transforms to modify your Service Definition and Service Configuration files.

• Scott Densmore - Another Update for the Deployment scripts for Windows Azure
• Tom Hollander – Using MSBuild to deploy to multiple Windows Azure environments

Function Get-MSBuild {
    $lib = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.RuntimeEnvironment]
    $rtd = $lib::GetRuntimeDirectory()
    Join-Path $rtd msbuild.exe
}

[Updated 9/12/2012 based on Matt's comment]

This gets the directory for the latest installed .NET runtime This gets the directory for the runtime environment under which Powershell is running and joins it with msbuild.exe.

Usage

& (Get-MSBuild)            

Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 4.0.30319.1
[Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 4.0.30319.1]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.

MSBUILD : error MSB1003: Specify a project or solution file.
The current working directory does not contain a project or solution file.

We are setting up a new Continuous Build server and as we tweak parameters, things happen. For example, false positives. The build worked on the server but fails locally.

As a sanity check and major time saver, this script runs MSBuild on a remote computer. You specify the name of the remote box and the Visual Studio solution path and filename.

Invoke-RemoteMSBuild ServerX G:\Build\Test.sln

No Fuss, No Muss

You run this script on your box, the MSBuild runs remotely. The MSBuild output is returned to your local box. No remoting in, no login, simple and easy.

Function Invoke-RemoteMSBuild {            
    param (            
        $computerName ,            
        $vsSolution = $(throw "Please specify the solution file")            
    )            
            
    Invoke-Command -ComputerName $computerName {            
        param ($vsSolution)            
            
        $msbuildpath = "$($env:windir)\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe"            
        & $msbuildpath $vsSolution            
            
    } -ArgumentList $vsSolution            
}

You need to have PowerShell installed on both boxes, run Enable-PSRemoting on both boxes and you need to be in the admin group on the server.

Thanks to colleague Jason Dolinger who is quickly ramping up on PowerShell and asked if this could be done.

Blog post MSBuild Task Factories: guest starring Windows Powershell.

Sample task factory on MSDN Code Gallery MSBuild Windows PowerShell Task Factory.