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ARM Template Deployment

There are 2 json templates that make up the deployment. Note that all the resources are defined in a single template. This is not best practice. In the next session, I will show how templates should be composed of multiple resource specific templates to promote re-use. Also, although I leverage Azure Key Vault to store secrets such as the admin password, I am not using ssh authentication because Key Vault currently does not seem to support template deployment with ssh keys stored in the key vault.

The azureDeploy.parameters.json template contains the parameters you need to provide. The azureDeploy.json is the template the defines the ARM resources and dependencies. This is the core template that specifies your deployment architecture as executable documentation.

In order to execute these templates, you need to have a pre-existing storage account. I have named the account architechtrainingvhds but you will have to choose a unique name and update the storageAccountName parameter value in the azureDeploy.parameters.json file. This is required as storage accounts are referenced by URIs and they need to be unique. You then need to create a container for blob storage called vhds within your storage account. Set the access to readonly for the container.

You also need to have a pre-existing Azure Key Vault resources with a secret named 'adminPassword' that stores the admin user password. Go to here for instructions.

To deploy the template using Azure CLI execute the following commands. Note, I assume the storage account resource group has already been created.

#login to azure and follow the instructions
az login

#Create a resource group, location would be "Canada East"
az group create -n <resource-group-name> -l <location>

#Always validate the template prior to trying to deploy it to catch any errors that may exist.
az group deployment validate --template-file arm/azureDeploy.json --parameters @arm/azureDeploy.parameters.json -g <resource-group-name>

#if the template is valid...
az group deployment create --template-file arm/azureDeploy.json --parameters @arm/azureDeploy.parameters.json -g <resource-group-name> -n <deploy-name>

Getting help with azure CLI


#to access help do this...
az <command> -h

#for example, for 'azure group template validate...'  you would do this...
az group deployment validate -h

The following resources are deployed in this template.

  1. Virtual Network with 3 subnets (app, db, jumpbox)
  2. External load balancer
  3. Network Security Group rules for the three subnets
  4. Public IP Address with associated DNS name for both the load balancer and jumpbox vm
  5. Network Interfaces
  6. Virtual Machines
  7. Storage Account for the VM OS and Data disks
  8. Availability Set for the app and db subnets

ARM Resource Dependencies

Certain ARM resources cannot exist unless another resource exists. For example, a virtual machine cannot exist without a storage account and disks. Below is a diagram of the dependencies you need to be aware of you when you author ARM templates. Dependencies are defined in the templates using the 'dependsOn' property of the resource object and implicitly using the reference function (we will cover this in a future session).

ARM Resource dependencies

Tips and Tricks

  1. Use Visual Studio Code to author ARM templates. Code is a fantastic, fast editor for Windows, macOS and Linux.
  2. Install Visual Studio Code ARM snippets. They are very helpful to get a template going.
  3. Bookmark this page. All the necessary docs related to ARM from MS starts there, and it is very good.
  4. To learn create your architecture manually via the portal. You can then export the generated template. See what is generated and refactor to be more resuable. This is a great way to learn.
  5. Don't just start writing templates. Whiteboard a deployment diagram, identify all resources, their dependencies, make decisions on how you will group them into resource groups. Start to define the resources within the template based on dependency order.
  6. Read this document first. You can read it over a coffee, and it will set you on the right path.
  7. Azure Resources have different naming restrictions. In order to save you some hassle, read this doc.
  8. Bookmark the Azure REST API Reference. All the JSON schema for each resource is documented there.
  9. You will be referencing resources by resourceId in your templates. Understand the structure of the generated resource. See the REST API reference.