Managing Azure Container Instances

Azure Container Instances Management

Analyze Azure Container Instances groups, resource utilization, and container health.

Phase 1: Discovery

#!/bin/bash

echo "=== Container Groups Inventory ==="
az container list --output json \
  | jq -r '.[] | "\(.name)\t\(.resourceGroup)\t\(.provisioningState)\t\(.osType)\t\(.location)\t\(.ipAddress.ip // "none")"' \
  | column -t | head -20

echo ""
echo "=== Container Details ==="
for CG in $(az container list --query '[].name' -o tsv); do
  RG=$(az container show --name "$CG" --query 'resourceGroup' -o tsv 2>/dev/null)
  az container show --name "$CG" --resource-group "$RG" --output json \
    | jq '{name, state: .instanceView.state, restartCount: .containers[0].instanceView.restartCount, containers: [.containers[] | {name, image: .image, cpu: .resources.requests.cpu, memoryGB: .resources.requests.memoryInGB, state: .instanceView.currentState.state}]}' 2>/dev/null
done | head -30

echo ""
echo "=== Networking ==="
az container list --output json \
  | jq -r '.[] | "\(.name)\t\(.ipAddress.type // "none")\t\(.ipAddress.ip // "none")\t\(.ipAddress.ports[]? | "\(.port)/\(.protocol)" // "none")"' \
  | column -t | head -20

echo ""
echo "=== Volume Mounts ==="
az container list --output json \
  | jq '.[] | select(.volumes != null) | {name, volumes: [.volumes[] | {name, type: (if .azureFile != null then "azureFile" elif .gitRepo != null then "gitRepo" elif .emptyDir != null then "emptyDir" else "secret" end)}]}' \
  | head -20

Phase 2: Analysis

#!/bin/bash

echo "=== Container Group Status ==="
for CG in $(az container list --query '[].name' -o tsv); do
  RG=$(az container show --name "$CG" --query 'resourceGroup' -o tsv 2>/dev/null)
  az container show --name "$CG" --resource-group "$RG" --output json \
    | jq '{
        name,
        state: .instanceView.state,
        events: [.instanceView.events[]? | {type, message: .message[0:80], timestamp: .firstTimestamp}] | last(3),
        containers: [.containers[] | {
          name,
          state: .instanceView.currentState.state,
          restarts: .instanceView.restartCount,
          exitCode: .instanceView.currentState.exitCode
        }]
      }' 2>/dev/null
done | head -40

echo ""
echo "=== Resource Utilization ==="
for CG in $(az container list --query '[].name' -o tsv); do
  RG=$(az container show --name "$CG" --query 'resourceGroup' -o tsv 2>/dev/null)
  echo "--- ${CG} ---"
  az monitor metrics list --resource "/subscriptions/$(az account show --query id -o tsv)/resourceGroups/${RG}/providers/Microsoft.ContainerInstance/containerGroups/${CG}" \
    --metric "CpuUsage,MemoryUsage" --interval PT1H \
    --aggregation Average Maximum \
    --query "value[].{metric:name.value, avg:timeseries[0].data[-1].average, max:timeseries[0].data[-1].maximum}" \
    -o table 2>/dev/null
done

echo ""
echo "=== Recent Container Logs ==="
for CG in $(az container list --query '[].name' -o tsv | head -5); do
  RG=$(az container show --name "$CG" --query 'resourceGroup' -o tsv 2>/dev/null)
  CONTAINER=$(az container show --name "$CG" --resource-group "$RG" --query 'containers[0].name' -o tsv 2>/dev/null)
  echo "--- ${CG}/${CONTAINER} ---"
  az container logs --name "$CG" --resource-group "$RG" --container-name "$CONTAINER" --tail 5 2>/dev/null
done

echo ""
echo "=== GPU Allocations ==="
az container list --output json \
  | jq '.[] | select(.containers[].resources.requests.gpu != null) | {name, gpu: .containers[].resources.requests.gpu}' 2>/dev/null

Output Format

AZURE CONTAINER INSTANCES ANALYSIS
====================================
Container Group    State     Containers  CPU   Memory  Restarts  IP
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
batch-processor    Running   2           2.0   4.0GB   0         10.0.1.5
web-scraper        Running   1           1.0   1.5GB   3         Public
ml-inference       Succeeded 1           4.0   8.0GB   0         none

Groups: 3 | Containers: 4 | GPU: 1 with K80
Restart Issues: 1 group with 3+ restarts

Safety Rules

• Read-only: Only use az container list, show, logs, and az monitor metrics
• Never start, stop, or delete container groups without explicit confirmation
• Log limits: Always use --tail to prevent unbounded log output
• Secrets: Never output secret volume contents

Anti-Hallucination Rules

1. NEVER assume resource names — always discover via CLI/API in Phase 1 before referencing in Phase 2.
2. NEVER fabricate metric names or dimensions — verify against the service documentation or --help output.
3. NEVER mix CLI commands between service versions — confirm which version/API you are targeting.
4. ALWAYS use the discovery → verify → analyze chain — every resource referenced must have been discovered first.
5. ALWAYS handle empty results gracefully — an empty response is valid data, not an error to retry.

Counter-Rationalizations