arm-templates

ARM Templates & Bicep

Deploy Azure infrastructure with ARM templates and Bicep. Bicep is the recommended domain-specific language that compiles to ARM JSON, offering cleaner syntax, modules, and first-class tooling support.

When to Use

• You need Azure-native Infrastructure as Code without third-party tooling.
• Your organization standardizes on Azure and wants tight portal integration.
• You need What-If analysis before deploying changes.
• You are migrating existing ARM JSON templates to Bicep for maintainability.
• You need deployment scopes at resource group, subscription, management group, or tenant level.

Prerequisites

# Install Azure CLI
curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash

# Install Bicep CLI (bundled with Azure CLI 2.20+)
az bicep install
az bicep upgrade

# Verify installation
az bicep version

# Login and set subscription
az login
az account set --subscription "my-subscription-id"

Bicep Fundamentals

Resource Group Deployment with Virtual Network

// main.bicep
@description('Azure region for all resources')
param location string = resourceGroup().location

@description('Environment name used for resource naming')
@allowed(['dev', 'staging', 'prod'])
param environment string = 'dev'

@description('Base name for all resources')
param baseName string

var vnetName = '${baseName}-${environment}-vnet'
var nsgName = '${baseName}-${environment}-nsg'

resource nsg 'Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups@2023-05-01' = {
  name: nsgName
  location: location
  properties: {
    securityRules: [
      {
        name: 'AllowHTTPS'
        properties: {
          priority: 100
          direction: 'Inbound'
          access: 'Allow'
          protocol: 'Tcp'
          sourcePortRange: '*'
          destinationPortRange: '443'
          sourceAddressPrefix: '*'
          destinationAddressPrefix: '*'
        }
      }
      {
        name: 'DenyAllInbound'
        properties: {
          priority: 4096
          direction: 'Inbound'
          access: 'Deny'
          protocol: '*'
          sourcePortRange: '*'
          destinationPortRange: '*'
          sourceAddressPrefix: '*'
          destinationAddressPrefix: '*'
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

resource vnet 'Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks@2023-05-01' = {
  name: vnetName
  location: location
  properties: {
    addressSpace: {
      addressPrefixes: [
        '10.0.0.0/16'
      ]
    }
    subnets: [
      {
        name: 'web-subnet'
        properties: {
          addressPrefix: '10.0.1.0/24'
          networkSecurityGroup: {
            id: nsg.id
          }
        }
      }
      {
        name: 'app-subnet'
        properties: {
          addressPrefix: '10.0.2.0/24'
        }
      }
      {
        name: 'data-subnet'
        properties: {
          addressPrefix: '10.0.3.0/24'
          privateEndpointNetworkPolicies: 'Enabled'
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

output vnetId string = vnet.id
output webSubnetId string = vnet.properties.subnets[0].id
output appSubnetId string = vnet.properties.subnets[1].id