Azure Resource Manager Cheat Sheet

• Azure Resource Manager is a service that allows you to create, update, and delete resources in your Azure account.

• Enables you to manage access control, locks, and tags for your resources after they have been deployed.

Features

• All requests are authenticated and authorized by ARM before being routed to the appropriate Azure service.

• Manage infrastructure using declarative templates and deploy it in a repeatable manner.

• Deploy, manage, and monitor all resources as a group.

• Tag resources to logically organize all the resources in your subscription.

• You can check the costs for a group of resources sharing the same tag.

• Define the dependencies between resources, so they’re deployed in the correct order.

Resource groups

• A container that holds related resources.



• You can create a resource group using the Azure Portal, PowerShell, CLI, or an ARM template.

• Each resource can only exist in a single resource group.

• You can add or remove resources to any resource group at any time.

• Allows you to move a resource from one resource group to another.

• Resources from multiple regions can be in one resource group.

• You can give users access to a resource group.

• Resources can interact with other resources in different resource groups.

• A resource group has a location or region, as it stores metadata about the resources.

• When you delete a resource group, it also deletes all of its resources.

ARM templates

• The template is a JSON file with declarative syntax that defines the properties and configuration of your resources. It is divided into the following sections:

  • Parameters – values that allow the same template to be used in multiple environments.

  • Variables – values that can be reused in templates.

  • User-defined functions – customized functions to simplify the template.

  • Resources – define the resources to be deployed.

  • Outputs – values from deployed resources.

• When a template is deployed, ARM converts it into REST API operations. 

• You can specify an apiVersion so that you can reuse the template without worrying about breaking changes introduced in later versions.

• To make sure your template adheres to suggested best practices, use an ARM template toolkit (arm-ttk).

• Before deploying the template, you can preview changes using the what-if operation.

• To deploy a template, you can use the following:

  • Azure Portal

  • Azure CLI

  • Azure Cloud Shell

  • PowerShell

  • REST API

  • Button in GitHub repository

• An application can be defined in a single template or divided into a purpose-specific template (modular files). You can also create a parent template that links all the nested templates.

• You can share the template using template specs and manage access using role-based access control (RBAC).

  • Link template – a different template file linked from the primary template.

  • Nested template – an embedded template syntax within the main template.

• You can also get the template of an existing resource group by exporting it.

• With Azure Pipelines, you can continuously build and deploy ARM template projects.

Bicep

Bicep is a domain-specific language (DSL) for declaratively deploying Azure resources. It enhances the authoring experience compared to JSON-based ARM templates while ensuring compatibility with ARM. Bicep compiles down to standard ARM templates for deployment.

Features of Bicep

• Bicep offers a cleaner, more concise syntax than JSON-based ARM templates, making it easier to write and maintain.
• Bicep allows you to define reusable modules, helping to break down large deployments into manageable pieces.
• Unlike tools like Terraform, Bicep doesn’t require managing a separate state file; it directly compiles to ARM templates, which Azure tracks.
• Bicep is fully compatible with ARM templates and leverages ARM’s APIs for resource deployment and management.

Structure of a Bicep Template

• Modules – Reusable components that encapsulate resources and logic.
• Parameters – Allow input values to be passed into the template.
• Resources – Define the Azure resources to be deployed.

Azure Resource Manager Pricing

• You are only charged for the resources deployed by the ARM template.

Azure Resource Manager Cheat Sheet References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/overview

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/overview

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/bicep/overview?tabs=bicep