Book Image

Azure Resource Manager Templates Quick Start Guide

By : Ritesh Modi
Book Image

Azure Resource Manager Templates Quick Start Guide

By: Ritesh Modi

Overview of this book

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates are declarations of Azure resources in the JSON format to provision and maintain them using infrastructure as code. This book gives practical solutions and examples for provisioning and managing various Azure services using ARM templates. The book starts with an understanding of infrastructure as code, a refresher on JSON, and then moves on to explain the fundamental concepts of ARM templates. Important concepts like iteration, conditional evaluation, security, usage of expressions, and functions will be covered in detail. You will use linked and nested templates to create modular ARM templates. You will see how to create multiple instances of the same resources, how to nest and link templates, and how to establish dependencies between them. You will also learn about implementing design patterns, secure template design, the unit testing of ARM templates, and adopting best practices. By the end of this book, you will understand the entire life cycle of ARM templates and their testing, and be able to author them for complex deployments.

Related Content you might be interested in

Current Title:

Small book image
Azure Resource Manager Templates Quick Start Guide
Ritesh Modi
Feb, 2019 | 234 pages
Small book image
DevOps with Windows Server 2016
Ritesh Modi
Mar, 2017 | 558 pages
Small book image
Azure for Architects.
Ritesh Modi
Jan, 2019 | 536 pages
Small book image
Azure for Architects
Rithin Skaria | Jack Lee | Ritesh Modi
Jul, 2020 | 698 pages
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: ARM Template Foundational Skills
Section 1: ARM Template Foundational Skills
2
Infrastructure as Code and Configuration Management
Infrastructure as Code and Configuration Management
What is configuration management?
Infrastructure as Code
What are ARM templates?
Designing ARM templates
A brief primer on JSON
Azure Resource Manager
Summary
3
Azure Resource Manager Templates
Azure Resource Manager Templates
Setting up the development environment
ARM template structure
Writing your first template
Template deployment
Parameters
Variables
Summary
4
Understanding Core Elements of ARM Templates
Understanding Core Elements of ARM Templates
ARM template expressions
ARM template functions
Resources
A complete template
Nesting resources
Understanding dependsOn
Using references
Understanding resourceId
Using linked templates
Nested templates
Summary
5
Advance Template Features
Advance Template Features
Creating multiple instances of a resource type
Creating multiple instances of a resource type, using Serial mode
Creating multiple instances of a resource property
Using copy to generate multiple variables
Conditions in ARM templates
Advanced deployments
Summary
6
Section 2: ARM Template Advanced Concepts
Section 2: ARM Template Advanced Concepts
7
IaaS Solutions Using Templates
IaaS Solutions Using Templates
Configuration inside an Azure virtual machine
Protecting scripts using SAS tokens
Using protectedSettings
CustomScriptExtension as separate resource
Summary
8
Unit Testing ARM Templates
Unit Testing ARM Templates
Unit testing
Unit testing ARM templates
Retrieving outputs from ARM templates
Using Pester
Setting up the test harness
Summary
9
Design Patterns
Design Patterns
Why use modular ARM templates?
Scenario
Technical prerequisites
Deploying the solution
Template patterns
Redefining resources in the same template
Summary
10
ARM Template Best Practices
ARM Template Best Practices
Use resourceId function
Generate Resource Identifier used multiple times
Use Comments
Use Tags for resources and resource groups
Use parameters sparingly
Group related parameters
Order parameters alphabetically
Constraint parameters if possible
Parameter's defaultValue and API versions
Declare All Resources as top-level resources
Output Resource Properties and Configuration
Resource-naming conventions
Storage of Linked templates
Resource Dependencies
Using Key Vaults for secrets
Using ContentVersion
Deployment – Best Practices
Summary
11
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Unit testing ARM templates

In the case of ARM templates, we define and declare resources using JSON notation. There is no value in testing this JSON file consisting of parameters and resources by parsing it. These templates do not generate any assemblies that can be used for executing unit tests against them. These templates can only be deployed, and so the only way to unit test resources in an ARM template is to unit test them after the deployment of the ARM template.

For the purposes of this chapter, we will use the next template for unit testing. This template is available with this chapter's accompanied code file named chapter-6 - listing1.txt. This template creates five resources:

  • Azure Storage account
  • Azure Virtual Network
  • Azure public IP address
  • Azure network interface card
  • Azure Virtual Machine

The parameters defined for this template are shown next:

  "parameters...
Previous Section
End of Section 3
Next Section