Learn how to deploy and manage Azure resources with ARM templates

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates are a great way to deploy and manage resources in Azure. With the new Microsoft Learn learning path, you can learn who you can get started with Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates.

What is Azure Resource Manager

But first, what exactly is Azure Resource Manager? Azure Resource Manager is the deployment and management service for Azure. It provides a management layer that enables you to create, update, and delete resources in your Azure account. You use management features, like access control, locks, and tags, to secure and organize your resources after deployment. You can learn more about Azure Resource Manager on Microsoft Docs.

What are ARM templates?

As infrastructure has become part of the iterative process, the division between operations and development has disappeared. Teams need to manage infrastructure and application code through a unified process.

To meet these challenges, you can automate deployments and use the practice of infrastructure as code. In code, you define the infrastructure that needs to be deployed. The infrastructure code becomes part of your project. Just like application code, you store the infrastructure code in a source repository and version it. Anyone on your team can run the code and deploy similar environments.

To implement infrastructure as code for your Azure solutions, use Azure Resource Manager templates (ARM templates). The template is a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file that defines the infrastructure and configuration for your project. The template uses declarative syntax, which lets you state what you intend to deploy without having to write the sequence of programming commands to create it. In the template, you specify the resources to deploy and the properties for those resources. You can learn more about ARM templates on Microsoft Docs.

Learn how to write, deploy and manage ARM templates with Microsoft Learn

Learning new concepts can be difficult. Luckily, we have a new Microsoft Learn learning path that helps you to learn how to write, deploy, and manage ARM templates.

in this learning path you will learn:

• Declaratively define the Azure resources you need within the structure of an ARM template.
• Create and validate your templates by using Visual Studio Code.
• Deploy your templates by using the Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, and through GitHub Actions.
• Break down complex deployments into smaller and more reusable components by using nested templates and linked templates.
• Validate and preview your infrastructure changes by using what-if and the ARM template test toolkit.
• Add custom steps to your ARM templates by using deployment scripts.
• Use advanced constructs such as deployment order, conditional deployments, and secrets to manage complex deployments.

The Learning Path includes the following modules:

• Deploy Azure infrastructure by using ARM templates
  Write Azure Resource Manager templates by using Visual Studio Code to deploy your infrastructure to Azure consistently and reliably.
• Deploy to multiple Azure environments by using ARM template features
  Manage multiple Azure environment deployments of your Azure Resource Manager templates by using functions, variables, tags, and parameter files.
• Preview changes and validate Azure resources by using what-if and the ARM template test toolkit
  This module teaches you how to preview your changes with the what-if operation and the value of doing so. It also teaches you how to create valid templates and gives you recommendations that you can follow by using the ARM template test toolkit.
• Automate the deployment of ARM templates by using GitHub Actions
  Learn how to deploy Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates by using Azure PowerShell, the Azure CLI, and GitHub Actions. Use linked templates to break down complex templates into templates that are more modular.
• Extend ARM templates by using deployment scripts
  Learn how to add custom steps to your Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates by using deployment scripts.
• Manage complex cloud deployments by using advanced ARM template features
  This module teaches you how to use advanced Azure Resource Manager template (ARM template) features to perform secrets management and conditional deployments.

Conclusion

I hope this helps you getting started with Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

By the way, if you need an instance of Azure Resource Manager in your on-premises environment, check out Azure Stack Hub.