Azure Resource Management

Azure Resource Management

This skill provides comprehensive guidance for managing Azure resources including provisioning, organizing, securing, and optimizing cloud infrastructure.

When to use this skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Create, update, or delete Azure resources
• Organize resources using resource groups and tags
• Implement infrastructure as code using Bicep or ARM templates
• Manage resource lifecycle and governance
• Optimize resource costs and performance

Prerequisites

• Azure subscription with appropriate permissions
• Azure CLI installed (az --version)
• Or Azure PowerShell module (optional)
• Understanding of resource hierarchy (Subscription → Resource Groups → Resources)

Guidelines

Resource Organization

Follow these principles for organizing Azure resources:

Resource Groups

• Group resources by lifecycle (e.g., all resources for a single application)
• Name consistently: rg-<app>-<env>-<region> (e.g., rg-webapp-prod-westus)
• Tag all resources with: Environment, Owner, Project, CostCenter

Naming Conventions

• Use lowercase with hyphens for resource names
• Include environment indicator: dev, staging, prod
• Keep names descriptive but concise (max 24 chars for storage accounts)

Resource Provisioning Methods

Azure CLI (Recommended for ad-hoc operations)

# Login and set subscription
az login
az account set --subscription "Your Subscription"

# Create resource group
az group create \
  --name rg-myapp-prod \
  --location westus \
  --tags Environment=Production Owner=TeamA Project=MyApp

# Create resources
az storage account create \
  --name myappprodstorage \
  --resource-group rg-myapp-prod \
  --sku Standard_LRS \
  --kind StorageV2

Bicep (Recommended for production)

• Use Bicep for all production deployments
• Store templates in version control
• Parameterize environment-specific values
• See examples/resource-deployment.bicep for a complete example

Resource Management Best Practices

Locks and Security

• Apply resource locks to prevent accidental deletion
• Use Azure Policy to enforce organizational standards
• Implement RBAC with least privilege principle

Cost Management

• Enable Cost Alerts at 80% of budget
• Use Reserved Instances for predictable workloads
• Regularly review and delete unused resources
• Tag resources for cost allocation

Monitoring

• Enable Azure Monitor for all resources
• Configure Diagnostic Settings to send logs to Log Analytics
• Set up alerts for critical metrics

Examples

See the examples/ directory for:

• resource-deployment.bicep - Complete Bicep template
• resource-cleanup.ps1 - Resource cleanup script
• tagging-strategy.md - Comprehensive tagging guide

References

• Azure Resource Manager documentation
• Bicep documentation
• Azure naming conventions
• Azure Policy samples