What is Azure Resource Manager or ARM?

Did you know you can create and deploy Azure resources using JSON template? Did you also know that you can enforce business compliances on your resources? All of this can be done using Azure Resource Manager (ARM). Read this article to learn everything important about ARM. You can write code to deploy infrastructure using ARM template called Infrastructure-as-Code.

What is ARM?

Azure Resource Manager(ARM) 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.

ARM is central API for Azure resources

When a user sends a request from any of the Azure tools, APIs, or SDKs, Resource Manager receives the request. It authenticates and authorizes the request. Resource Manager sends the request to the Azure service, which takes the requested action. Because all requests are handled through the same API, you see consistent results and capabilities in all the different tools.

The following image shows the role Azure Resource Manager plays in handling Azure requests.

🏆 Pro Tip

ARM new functionality initially released through APIs will be represented in the portal within 180 days of initial release.

What is Resource in Azure?

A manageable item that is available through Azure. Virtual machines, storage accounts, web apps, databases, and virtual networks are examples of resources. Resource groups, subscriptions, management groups, and tags are also examples of resources.

Note

What do you mean by Azure Management and when we say Azure manages resources etc.? You use Azure Management Features, like access control, locks, and tags, to secure and organize your resources after deployment. If you create Resource group then you can manage all of the resources that shares the same compliances. Check my Azure Governance article to learn more about it.

What is Resource Group in Azure?

A container that holds related resources for an Azure solution. The resource group includes those resources that you want to manage as a group. You decide which resources belong in a resource group based on what makes the most sense for your organization. Important factors to put resource in Resource Group:

Group resources by lifecycle

All the resources in your resource group should share the same lifecycle. You deploy, update, and delete them together.

Note

If one resource, such as a server, needs to exist on a different deployment cycle it should be in another resource group.

Resource can exist in only one group.

Each resource can exist in only one resource group. Same resource instance can not belong to multiple resource groups.

Resource locations can be different

However, the resources in a resource group can be located in different regions than the resource group.

Resource can change groups

You can move a resource from one resource group to another group.

Resource group must have location

When creating a resource group, you need to provide a location.

🏆 Pro Tip

“Why does a resource group need a location?” And, if the resources can have different locations than the resource group, why does the resource group location matter at all?” The resource group stores metadata about the resources. When you specify a location for the resource group, you’re specifying where that metadata is stored. For compliance reasons, you may need to ensure that your data is stored in a particular region. See Resource groups.

Warning

If the resource group’s region is temporarily unavailable, you can’t update resources in the resource group because the metadata is unavailable. The resources in other regions will still function as expected, but you can’t update them.

Resource group is good boundary for security and compliances

A resource group can be used to scope access control for administrative actions. To manage a resource group, you can assign Azure Policies, Azure roles, or resource locks. 7. You can apply tags to a resource group. The resources in the resource group don’t inherit those tags.

Resource group can be Tagged

You can apply tags to a resource group.

Note

The resources in the resource group don’t inherit those tags.

Resources can communication across groups

A resource can connect to resources in other resource groups.

🏆 Pro Tip

You can have a web app that connects to a database in a different resource group. These two resources are related but don’t share the same lifecycle however they can connect to each other.

Resource is composed in group

When you delete a resource group, all resources in the resource group are also deleted.

800 Resources in a group

You can deploy up to 800 instances of a resource type in each resource group.

Resource can exist outside of group

Some resources can exist outside of a resource group. These resources are deployed to the subscription, management group, or tenant. Only specific resource types are supported at these scopes.

🏆 Pro Tip

ARM Never taken down for maintenance activities. ARM REST API are distributed across region and Availability Zones/regions.

References

1. Microsoft ARM Learn More
2. ARM Template Infrastructure-as-Code Demo

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Thanks for reading my article till end. I hope you learned something special today. If you enjoyed this article then please share to your friends and if you have suggestions or thoughts to share with me then please write in the comment box.

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