Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is the deployment and management service for Azure. It provides a consistent management layer that enables you to create, update, and delete resources in your Azure account. ARM allows you to manage your infrastructure through declarative templates rather than scripts, ensuring that your deployments are repeatable and consistent.

• Definition: A resource group is a container that holds related resources for an Azure solution.
• Purpose: It helps manage and organize resources in a logical manner.
• Best Practices: Group resources that share the same lifecycle, permissions, and policies.

• Definition: JSON files that define the infrastructure and configuration for your Azure solution.
• Purpose: Enable infrastructure as code, making deployments repeatable and consistent.
• Components:
  • Schema: Defines the structure of the template.
  • Parameters: Allow customization of the template.
  • Variables: Store values that can be reused.
  • Resources: Define the Azure resources to be deployed.
  • Outputs: Return values from the deployed resources.

• Incremental: Adds resources to the existing ones without deleting any.
• Complete: Deletes resources that are not defined in the template.

• Definition: Provides fine-grained access management for Azure resources.
• Purpose: Ensures that only authorized users can manage resources.
• Components:
  • Roles: Define a set of permissions.
  • Role Assignments: Bind a role to a user, group, or service principal.
  • Scopes: Define the level at which the role assignment applies (e.g., subscription, resource group, resource).

ARM Template (resource-group-template.json)

Deployment Command

• Template: Defines a resource group with a location parameter.
• Command: Uses Azure CLI to deploy the template to a specified resource group.

1. Objective: Create a resource group using the Azure Portal.
2. Steps:
   • Navigate to the Azure Portal.
   • Select "Resource groups" from the left-hand menu.
   • Click "Add".
   • Enter the resource group name and select a region.
   • Click "Review + create" and then "Create".

1. Objective: Deploy a simple ARM template to create a storage account.
2. Steps:
   • Create a JSON file named storage-account-template.json with the following content:

     {
       "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
       "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
       "resources": [
         {
           "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts",
           "apiVersion": "2019-06-01",
           "name": "[parameters('storageAccountName')]",
           "location": "[parameters('location')]",
           "sku": {
             "name": "Standard_LRS"
           },
           "kind": "StorageV2",
           "properties": {}
         }
       ],
       "parameters": {
         "storageAccountName": {
           "type": "string",
           "metadata": {
             "description": "Name of the storage account"
           }
         },
         "location": {
           "type": "string",
           "defaultValue": "East US",
           "allowedValues": [
             "East US",
             "West US",
             "Central US"
           ],
           "metadata": {
             "description": "Location for the storage account"
           }
         }
       }
     }
     

   • Use the Azure CLI to deploy the template:

     az deployment group create --resource-group myResourceGroup --template-file storage-account-template.json --parameters storageAccountName=myuniquestorageacct
     

• Template: Defines a storage account with parameters for the name and location.
• Command: Deploys the template to the specified resource group with the given parameters.

• Mistake: Not specifying the correct API version in the template.
  • Tip: Always check the latest API version for the resource type you are deploying.
• Mistake: Hardcoding values in the template.
  • Tip: Use parameters and variables to make the template reusable and flexible.

In this section, you learned about Azure Resource Manager, its key concepts, and how to use ARM templates to manage your Azure resources. You also practiced creating a resource group and deploying a storage account using ARM templates. Understanding ARM is crucial for efficient and consistent management of your Azure infrastructure. In the next module, we will dive into core Azure services, starting with Azure Virtual Machines.