Provisioning Azure

Clicking, scripting, coding
something for everybody

Andrei Mustață

dotnet Iași

Cloud ☁

computing power
storage
applications

Cloud ☁

AWS, Azure, etc.
plenty to choose from
similar features (roughly)

Azure

mmm Microsoft
gaining up on AWS
similar stuff, named differently

Azure portal

Who likes mice?
Who likes blades?

(clicking)

Azure portal

Web-based console
Point-and-shoot
Build, manage, monitor
Customise dashboards

Azure portal

Who likes mice?
Who likes blades?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-portal/azure-portal-overview#getting-around-the-portal

Portal

example

Creating a VM through the portal

Azure portal

GUI, visual feedback
Cool for exploring
OK for few resources

Pros

Azure portal

Careful with more resources
Forgot what you clicked?
Don't know who clicked?
Recreate environment from scratch?

Cons

Azure CLI

Who likes keyboards?

(scripting)

Azure CLI

Cross-platform
Open-source
CLI

Azure CLI

(scripting)

https://github.com/Azure/azure-cli#highlights

CLI example

Creating a VM through the CLI

az vm create \
  --resource-group dni-rg \
  --name demo.buntu \
  --image UbuntuLTS \
  --admin-username andrei \
  --admin-password supersecretPassword123LOL


{
  "fqdns": "",
  "id": "/subscriptions/<guid>/resourceGroups/dni-rg/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/demo.buntu",
  "location": "eastus",
  "macAddress": "00-0D-3A-23-9A-49",
  "powerState": "VM running",
  "privateIpAddress": "10.0.0.4",
  "publicIpAddress": "40.68.254.142",
  "resourceGroup": "myResourceGroup"
}

Azure CLI

Automate processes
Compatible with other CLI
Version control
Documented

Pros

Azure CLI

Still kinda like clicking
CLI

Cons

Azure PS

Who likes objects?

(moar scripting)

Azure PS

Cross-platform
Open-source

PS example

Creating a VM through the Azure PS

$vmParams = @{
  ResourceGroupName = 'dni-rg'
  Name = 'demo.buntu'
  Location = 'eastus'
  ImageName = 'Ubuntu16LTS'
  Credential = $cred
}

$newVM = New-AzVM @vmParams

Azure PS

Same as CLI
Object model
dotnet framework
Closer to C#

Pros

Azure PS

Powershell ^_^
Syntax

Cons

Azure mgmt SDK

Who likes C#?

(coding)

Azure SDK

NuGet packages
Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent

SDK
example

Creating a VM through the Azure C# SDK

Console.WriteLine("Creating a Windows VM");

var windowsVM = azure.VirtualMachines.Define("demo.buntu")
    .WithRegion(Region.EUWest)
    .WithNewResourceGroup("dni-rg")
    .WithNewPrimaryNetwork("10.0.0.0/28")
    .WithPrimaryPrivateIPAddressDynamic()
    .WithNewPrimaryPublicIPAddress("mywindowsvmdns")
    .WithPopularWindowsImage(KnownWindowsVirtualMachineImage.WindowsServer2012R2Datacenter)
    .WithAdminUsername("andrei")
    .WithAdminPassword(password)
    .WithSize(VirtualMachineSizeTypes.StandardD3V2)
    .Create();
	
Console.WriteLine("Created a Windows VM: " + windowsVM.Id);

Azure SDK

C#
Typed

Pros

Azure SDK

Compile every change?
Feels weird, man

Cons

Provisioning Azure

Portal
az-cli
Az-powershell
mgmt SDK

Recap

Procedural

... procedural
How to do something
Is there a better way?
There's a different way

Declarative

What rather than how
Define the desired end-state
Let the tooling handle the how

Pros

Declarative

Limited to what the language provides
Not a "full" programming language

Cons

Infrastructure-as-code

Version control
Automation
Reuse modules

Azure RM templates

Who likes JSON?

(ARM)

{
  "easy": true,
  "fun": 1.2
}

Azure RM templates

(ARM)

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "",
  "apiProfile": "",
  "parameters": {  },
  "variables": {  },
  "functions": [  ],
  "resources": [  ],
  "outputs": {  }
}

ARM
example

Creating a VM through an ARM template

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "adminUsername": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Username for the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },
    "adminPassword": {
      "type": "securestring",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Password for the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },
    "dnsLabelPrefix": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Unique DNS Name for the Public IP used to access the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },
    "windowsOSVersion": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "2016-Datacenter",
      "allowedValues": [
        "2008-R2-SP1",
        "2012-Datacenter",
        "2012-R2-Datacenter",
        "2016-Nano-Server",
        "2016-Datacenter-with-Containers",
        "2016-Datacenter",
        "2019-Datacenter"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "description": "The Windows version for the VM. This will pick a fully patched image of this given Windows version."
      }
    },
    "location": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "[resourceGroup().location]",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Location for all resources."
      }
    }
  },
  "variables": {
    "storageAccountName": "[concat(uniquestring(resourceGroup().id), 'sawinvm')]",
    "nicName": "myVMNic",
    "addressPrefix": "10.0.0.0/16",
    "subnetName": "Subnet",
    "subnetPrefix": "10.0.0.0/24",
    "publicIPAddressName": "myPublicIP",
    "vmName": "SimpleWinVM",
    "virtualNetworkName": "MyVNET",
    "subnetRef": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/subnets', variables('virtualNetworkName'), variables('subnetName'))]"
  },
  "resources": [
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts",
      "apiVersion": "2018-11-01",
      "name": "[variables('storageAccountName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "sku": {
        "name": "Standard_LRS"
      },
      "kind": "Storage",
      "properties": {}
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses",
      "apiVersion": "2018-11-01",
      "name": "[variables('publicIPAddressName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "properties": {
        "publicIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
        "dnsSettings": {
          "domainNameLabel": "[parameters('dnsLabelPrefix')]"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks",
      "apiVersion": "2018-11-01",
      "name": "[variables('virtualNetworkName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "properties": {
        "addressSpace": {
          "addressPrefixes": [
            "[variables('addressPrefix')]"
          ]
        },
        "subnets": [
          {
            "name": "[variables('subnetName')]",
            "properties": {
              "addressPrefix": "[variables('subnetPrefix')]"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
      "apiVersion": "2018-11-01",
      "name": "[variables('nicName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses/', variables('publicIPAddressName'))]",
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/', variables('virtualNetworkName'))]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "ipConfigurations": [
          {
            "name": "ipconfig1",
            "properties": {
              "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
              "publicIPAddress": {
                "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses',variables('publicIPAddressName'))]"
              },
              "subnet": {
                "id": "[variables('subnetRef')]"
              }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
      "apiVersion": "2018-10-01",
      "name": "[variables('vmName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/', variables('storageAccountName'))]",
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/', variables('nicName'))]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "hardwareProfile": {
          "vmSize": "Standard_A2"
        },
        "osProfile": {
          "computerName": "[variables('vmName')]",
          "adminUsername": "[parameters('adminUsername')]",
          "adminPassword": "[parameters('adminPassword')]"
        },
        "storageProfile": {
          "imageReference": {
            "publisher": "MicrosoftWindowsServer",
            "offer": "WindowsServer",
            "sku": "[parameters('windowsOSVersion')]",
            "version": "latest"
          },
          "osDisk": {
            "createOption": "FromImage"
          },
          "dataDisks": [
            {
              "diskSizeGB": 1023,
              "lun": 0,
              "createOption": "Empty"
            }
          ]
        },
        "networkProfile": {
          "networkInterfaces": [
            {
              "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces',variables('nicName'))]"
            }
          ]
        },
        "diagnosticsProfile": {
          "bootDiagnostics": {
            "enabled": true,
            "storageUri": "[reference(resourceId('Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/', variables('storageAccountName'))).primaryEndpoints.blob]"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "outputs": {
    "hostname": {
      "type": "string",
      "value": "[reference(variables('publicIPAddressName')).dnsSettings.fqdn]"
    }
  }
}

ARM
example

Creating a VM through an ARM template

$resourceGroupName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the Resource Group name"
$location = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the location (i.e. centralus)"
$adminUsername = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the administrator username"
$adminPassword = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the administrator password" -AsSecureString
$dnsLabelPrefix = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter an unique DNS name for the public IP"

New-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroupName -Location "$location"
New-AzResourceGroupDeployment `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
    -TemplateUri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/master/101-vm-simple-windows/azuredeploy.json" `
    -adminUsername $adminUsername `
    -adminPassword $adminPassword `
    -dnsLabelPrefix $dnsLabelPrefix

 (Get-AzVm -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName).name

Azure RM templates

Click first, template later
Microsoft integrations
VS Code/Studio plugins

Pros

Azure RM templates

Verbose
Poor readability
On hold on Thoughtworks' radar

Cons

Terraform

Who hates JSON?
Who hates YAML?

(declarative)

Terraform

Hashicorp
Provider-agnostic
Plugins for AWS, Azure, etc
`plan`, then `apply`

Terraformexample

Creating a VM through Terraform Azure

resource "azurerm_virtual_machine" "myterraformvm" {
    name                  = "myVM"
    location              = "eastus"
    resource_group_name   = "${azurerm_resource_group.myterraformgroup.name}"
    network_interface_ids = ["${azurerm_network_interface.myterraformnic.id}"]
    vm_size               = "Standard_DS1_v2"

    storage_os_disk {
        name              = "myOsDisk"
        caching           = "ReadWrite"
        create_option     = "FromImage"
        managed_disk_type = "Premium_LRS"
    }

    storage_image_reference {
        publisher = "Canonical"
        offer     = "UbuntuServer"
        sku       = "16.04.0-LTS"
        version   = "latest"
    }

    os_profile {
        computer_name  = "myvm"
        admin_username = "azureuser"
    }

    os_profile_linux_config {
        disable_password_authentication = true
        ssh_keys {
            path     = "/home/azureuser/.ssh/authorized_keys"
            key_data = "ssh-rsa AAAAB3Nz{snip}hwhqT9h"
        }
    }

    boot_diagnostics {
        enabled     = "true"
        storage_uri = "${azurerm_storage_account.mystorageaccount.primary_blob_endpoint}"
    }

    tags {
        environment = "Terraform Demo"
    }
}

Terraform

Declarative
Verification step
More readable than ARM
Active community

Pros

Terraform

Yet another tool

Cons

Provisioning Azure

Go forth and provision
Version control ❤️

Fin

References

https://portal.azure.com/
http://www.jameybaumgardt.com/microsoft-azure-portal

Portal

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/install-azure-cli
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/linux/quick-create-cli
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/azure-cli-vm-tutorial

Azure CLI

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/azure/overview
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/azure/azureps-vm-tutorial

Azure Powershell

References

https://github.com/Azure/azure-libraries-for-net#download

Azure mgmt SDK

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/resource-manager-tutorial-create-encrypted-storage-accounts
https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/tools/handwritten-cloudformation

ARM templates

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/learn/what-is-infrastructure-as-code
https://www.hashicorp.com/resources/what-is-infrastructure-as-code

Infrastructure-as-code

References

https://www.terraform.io/intro/index.html
https://learn.hashicorp.com/terraform/getting-started/install.html

Terraform

Provisioning Azure

Cloud ☁

Cloud ☁

Azure

Azure portal

Azure portal

Azure portal

Portal

example

Azure portal

Azure portal

Azure CLI

Azure CLI

Azure CLI

CLI example

Azure CLI

Azure CLI

Azure PS

Azure PS

PS example

Azure PS

Azure PS

Azure mgmt SDK

Azure SDK

SDK example

Azure SDK

Azure SDK

Provisioning Azure

Procedural

Declarative

Declarative

Infrastructure-as-code

Azure RM templates

Azure RM templates

ARM example

ARM example

Azure RM templates

Azure RM templates

Terraform

Terraform

Terraformexample

Terraform

Terraform

Provisioning Azure

Fin

References

References

References

References

References

References

References

SDK
example

ARM
example

ARM
example