Architecture & DesignA Look Inside Azure's Next Gen Computer Platform

A Look Inside Azure’s Next Gen Computer Platform

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Overview

In a typical cloud application/service, there are multiple resources that enable it to operate successfully. These can be and are not limited to database, application layer, front-end services, and so forth.

The Azure Resource Manager provides APIs and tools to manage these resources. One big change that is coming to Azure Resource Manager is the “resource group” feature.

In today’s world, to manage these resources, a user has to navigate to each resource in the Azure Resource Manager and perform actions on it. This can be pretty tedious and error-prone if not done accurately for all the resources that are part of supporting a service.

Azure Resource Manager now supports something called a “resource group” that can cluster all these resources into a single logical entity and one can then perform operations against a single entity—the resource group. This simplifies the operational model for dealing with these resources and provides a logical lifecycle boundary for all resources contained within.

A resource group is a container of multiple resource instances. Each resource instance has a resource type. Resource Types are defined by resource providers. Every resource must exist in one and only one resource group.

With resource groups, you can support deployment, update the resources, delete the resources, as well as get the status of the resources by interacting with a single logical entity.

How to Create Resource Groups

You can create resource groups in one of two ways:

  1. Creating resource groups using Azure Management Portal.
  2. Creating a resource group from Visual Studio.

In this article, we will explore how to create resource groups using Azure Management Portal.

Resource Group Management from Azure Management Portal

Log in to Azure Management Portal if you have not done so already. If you do not have an app, create a new Web App.

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Figure 1: Creating a new Web App

If prompted, navigate to the new Preview version of the Portal. This will help ensure you always have the latest experience with the Azure Management Portal.

Once you navigate to the new Portal UI, you will notice the following:

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Figure 2: A resource group exists

Notice that, by default, the app has been provided a resource group based on the availability Zone for your web app.

Now ,navigate to the “Home” screen for the new Azure Management Portal.

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Figure 3: The new Azure Management Portal Home screen

Click the Browse Everything tab.

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Figure 4: The Browse Everything tab

You can see all the resources on the right frame. On the left frame, you will notice “Resource Groups”. Click it to see all the resource groups related to your Azure subscription.

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Figure 5: All the resource groups related to your Azure subscription

You can select any resource group to see the resources contained in that group.

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Figure 6: Viewing the resources contained in a group

To add new resources to the group, click the “+ Add” sign on the right frame. You will be prompted with resources you can add to the resource group.

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Figure 7: Adding to the resource group

For the walkthrough process, I will choose the “Mobile App” resource.

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Figure 8: Choosing the “Mobile App” resource

Click Create to proceed.

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Figure 9: Continuing to add the “Mobile App” resource

You then are prompted to provide details for the Mobile App. Provide the details. Make sure to change the default resource group if you want to add the resource to a different group.

Finally, click “Create”.

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Figure 10: The new resource group has been added

Follow any prompts that ask for additional information.

Notice that, on the left frame, the Notifications Tab might be blinking. Click to check the progress.

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Figure 11: Checking the progress on the Notifications tab

Now, we will explore how to manage the settings for the resource groups.

Go to the home screen for the Azure Management Portal and come back to the Resource Group view. Select a Resource Group and click the Settings button at the top.

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Figure 12: Having clicked the Settings button

You will notice the following:

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Figure 13: The Settings area

Click Properties, Users and Tags to learn more.

Clicking the Properties button shows more information about the resource group.

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Figure 14: Showing more information about the resource group

Clicking Users allows you to manage users who can interact with the resources in the resource group. It also helps add users and assign roles to the users.

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Figure 15: Adding users and assigning roles to them

The Tags View allows you manage tags that you can assign to the resources. This can be used for organizing Azure Resources.

Deleting Resource Groups

Deleting a resource group deletes all resources contained within it.

Summary

In this article, we learned about a new feature, Resource Groups, in Azure Resource Manager that makes resource management simpler by providing a way to cluster resources within a lifecycle boundary.

I hope you have found this article useful.

About the Author

Vipul Patel is a technology geek based in Seattle. He can be reached at vipul.patel@hotmail.com. You can visit his LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/pub/vipul-patel/6/675/508.

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