This week, I am presenting at GIRA ONLINE SPEAKERS LATAM 2022 event. It is one of the largest technology events that is made available to all of Latin America and Microsoft communities.
Please, check the following LinkedIn post where I made announcementsΒ about this session.
My session is focused on a brief introduction to IaC with Azure Bicep and Productivity tips for setting your infrastructure-as-code on your VS Code environment.
recorded session:
The Azure Bicep – Productivity tips session has been published on YouTube channel.
Please, check it out and let me know your feedback.
Thank you for following the #CloudMarathner journey!
I had a great joy while interacting with a number of attendees. Thank You for checking this blog and please feel free to reach out back with your questions.
As you might know, the Azure Bicep language brings a new Infrastructure as a Code (IaC) approach to manage your Azure resources in a clean way. We also have a classic ARM JSON template that is/was traditionally used to define Azure infrastructure resources in a declarative way.
However, it is not easy to author and maintain ARM JSON templates when your project grows in complexity.
A demo screenshot from the session
But, I have good news for you – Microsoft infrastructure team has been working on new language to ease this process. Thus, an Azure Bicep language is created to simplify management of your infrastructure while re-using the code.
In this, I have introduced new features and capabilities of Azure Bicep v0.5 & v0.6 language. You also see demos on how it is simple to create, manage a modularized Azure infrastructure-as-code, while using familiar tools and extensions on VS Code.
The infrastructure-as-code (IaC) is not a just a “buzzword”, it is brought by a necessity to manage your digital estate more predictably while source-controlling the changes that are introduced over time. In its turn, this approach makes it easier to keep your workload environments compliant and saves ton of time in troubleshooting, development and auditing your resources
In this post, we will look into the necessity of child resources in Azure and how Bicep language simplifies their management and declaration as a code.
why azure bicep child resources?
There are a number of scenarios where it makes perfect sense to declare resources within the context of their parent. For example; storage blob containers could not be declared and used without a parent storage account.
In addition to Blob containers, there are many other child resource types in Azure like:
Virtual network subnets
SQL databases
Azure Cosmos DB containers
SQL databases
VM extensions
How could you define child resources?
Unsurprisingly, there is more than one way to define Azure Bicep child resources. Each approach will depend on a specific use case that you or your team is looking forward to delivering.
Further we will use the example of a storage account resource to describe different options of child resource declarations. This will make it easier to describe the concepts and available options to you. However, these concepts could be easily used on other Azure services like VMs and VNets that do have child resources too.
Option-1 : Child resource created with reference to parent
Our first option is declaring a child Blob container resource as a separate independent resource with a reference to a parent resource. Like, it is illustrated on the example screen-shot from the Learn-Bicep repo.
For this option to work, we would need to declare an Azure Storage Blob service too. Let’s look into how it could be done while considering a second option.
Option-2 : Including a child resource in the declaration
Our second option is declaring a Storage Blob service resource as a separate independent resource with a reference to a parent Storage Account resource. Then it has an inner declaration for a container child resources within the Storage Blob service.
Let’s look at the example screen-shot from the Learn-Bicep repo.
This option might be an ideal approach if you have few child resources in your declaration. However, it would not be the most efficient one to use, if the number of child resources you are required to deploy is in dozens, hundreds or even thousands.
Option-3 : Automation and looping with enumeration π
The final option will serve you well, if you have 100s of pre-defined containers that should be deployed into your Azure environment.
By leveraging the “iterative loops” in Bicep we can easily iterate over these containers while creating them in a compact and repeatable manner, like in the following screen-shot from the repo code.
Looking for more Bicep goodness?
A community of developers and engineers started a great initiative – to help everyone to learn Azure Bicep for #free by sharing & contributing to the AWESOME-Azure-Bicep GitHub repo.
As you were informed in my last post, I have published a new GitHub repo to help the community and new learners with Azure Bicep resources. The new repo – AWESOME Azure Bicep πͺ is getting a high interest from all of you.
Thank you very much for accessing, starring β and forking π΄ it! If you learn about it now, please check it out here.
And this is not all. We have plenty of room to grow this repo with the latest contributions from you.
Two new contributors
In less than a week, we got two great contributions from Kasun Rajapakse and Luke Murray π. Thank you very much for your contributions!
Get started with Azure Bicep
Let’s step-up your game and start learning the latest π Azure #infrastructureascode language (aka, Bicep). I sincerely invite you to become a part of this really great “learn and share” initiative of Azure Bicep.
Share your interest and knowledge with the community by opening your very first GitHub PR.
Looking for a video course on Azure Bicep ?π€ >> Azure Bicep First Look πΒ https://lnkd.in/eWsxf3hjΒ is here to help!
Summary
This project is growing and let’s become a part of this Azure Bicep community !
Ready to make your first PR to Awesome Azure Bicep repo? Please check out the contribution guide or reach out if you need help in this process.
I have been getting many questions on how to start an Azure Bicep journey – in a special and AWESOME way π – which brought an idea to create the AWESOME Azure Bicep GitHub repo for the community π
Long story short, this has been on ideation for few days and is life now, as of Jan 18, 2022 ! π
Now, I have started gradually adding important official and community resources to help new #Azure learnersΒ and #cloudmarathoners!
AWESOME Azure Bicep repo
Please, share β and fork π΄ this repo and make your contributions.
I really ask you ππ to make your contributions and help maintain and grow this repo going forward.
Are you looking for a simpler, more efficient way to author infrastructure resources in Azure?
Azure Bicep First Look course
If so, youβre in luck. Azure Bicep is here to help. Bicep is a new domain-specific language (DSL) for deploying resources in Azure. Itβs also a much cleaner, more concise language than ARM JSONβcloud admins and DevOps professionals, rejoice!
Every seasoned IT professional knows that sensitive information should not be exposed as a clear text on any code. This is especially true for infrastructure-as-code (aka, IaC) scenarios where passwords and keys are part of the deployment.
One way to stay compliant in accomplishing this goal is the integration of an Azure Key Vault service into your deployment code. This Azure security service is primarily intended to store sensitive information like password, keys, certificates, connections, etc.
In this post, we will look into two different ways how we could integrate Azure Key Vault services in our Azure Bicep code.
Option – 1: Using getSecret() function
Our first option is to delegate this important work to a getSecret() function. This option could be used with an existing Azure Key Vault resource that is declared in your Azure Bicep code.
Let’s look into an example where an existing Azure Key Vault service is referenced to provide administrative password for SQL server deployment.
Deploying Azure SQL instance with Azure Key Vault
This sample Bicep code is using sqldb.bicep file as a module, where parameters; such as sqlServerName and adminLogin are passed through with a secret name of ExamplePassword.
The ExamplePassword secret name should be already set and ready in the referenced Key Vault service above. Here is the view of this secret on Azure portal.
Azure Key Vault with secretes in portal
Let’s have a quick view into the sqldb.bicep file, as it is referenced in the main Bicep file.
sqldb.bicep file
Now, let’s deploy these resources with a secret value from Key Vault resource that has a secret name ExamplePassword.
What happened? I am getting an error on my first deployment execution π
Error on deploying Bicep code with SQL server provisioning
Upon carefully analyzing error, I see the following reason for this error:
At least one resource deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details. Please see https://aka.ms/DeployOperations for usage details.”,”details”:[{“code”:”RegionDoesNotAllowProvisioning”,”message”:”Location ‘East US 2’ is not accepting creation of new Windows Azure SQL Database servers at this time.
Azure deployment error
Based on the error message, we change the location to eastus and re-run the script. Now, we got the following positive result in console and portal:
Deployment results in Azure Portal RG
Next, we will attempt to login into a SQL Server instance. A successful login will look like the following screen:
Successful login into the SQL instance
Important Note:
If you are getting an error during the login then try to check the following steps:
adminLogin name is entered correctly
your IP address is added to the SQL server firewall rules
grab a cup of coffee and check back in 5 minutes
Description of a typical login error into a SQL server instance is provided below. I checked the firewall rules and made a cup of coffee => before getting a successful log-in π
Requires your location IP activation
Option -2: Referencing as a secretName in parameter
The second option is pretty straightforward, if you have already used it on ARM template deployments.
We just need to reference Azure Key Vault secret like in the following example:
Using a parameter file and referencing the Key Vault secretName will do the trick in extracting the value and provisioning your resource.
Let’s run the bicep file that deploys multiple RGs and an Azure VM that uses VMPassword secret.
Running deployment with Bicep parameter file
A successful deployment provisions following RG with the VM resources:
Next, we should smoke test our deployment by locating the resource group “rg-demo-vm-1116” and using deployment parameters to RDP into Windows server:
Finally, we are able to see that secret and admin user name pair worked as expected
Azure VM deployed using Key Vault secret
Summary
In this post, we looked into two available options that harden our infrastructure code by removing hard-coded sensitive information and replacing it with Azure Key Vault reference. Thus, avoiding any potential leaks of passwords, secrets, etc.
IMHO, first option is better than the later one, because it does not expose subscription id and other small details.
I am very excited to see you all in the next Omaha Azure User Group meetup. This time we will speak about the latest advancements and use cases you could apply in your Azure resource authoring toolkit.
As you may know, it is that time of a year when great content will be coming to the town! You could enjoy and learn throughout the month of December, as people behind the #festivetechcalendar will be bringing you lots of new content from different communities and people around the globe.
This year, I have submitted two sessions and have been nicely surprised yesterday. Both sessions have been accepted and I am looking forward to deliver following sessions for the community:
Session # 1: What you need to know about Azure AD security defaults?
Accepted session – “What you need to know about Azure AD security defaults?“
In this session above, we will discuss about how to get started with Azure security on right foot and its challenges. We will focus on importance of a strong Identity and Access in any cloud solution that we are creating for our customers. One simple way to get started is review and adjustment of security default options in Azure AD. We will also look into the set of practices to get you started with Azure AD setup and learn about the benefits of Azure Security Benchmark.
Session # 2: All you need to know about Azure Bicep configurations
Accepted session -“All you need to know about Azure Bicep configurations”
In the second session, we will talk about Azure Bicep – a new language that aims to ease Azure resource authoring and management. This new language comes with a powerful VS Code extension and config file options. In this session, we will unveil dozens of powerful features in our config file to suit your style of coding on VS Code and cheer up our productivity skills. We will apply our fresh skills by creating several Bicep demos in the process.
Conclusion
I sincerely hope that these sessions will spark your interest and I am looking forward to see you all during this event. But most importantly, I hope you could have lots of fun during this festive month.
Stay tuned for more Azure AD, Automation & Security related posts.
In my previous Azure Bicep post, I wrote about four parameterization options that could be used with Bicep language. We also looked into the Azure Bicep resource templates, and how they help to author and manage Azure resources more cleanly and easily.
Azure Bicep Tips – Hardening parameter inputs
Now, I would like to share a couple tips on how to harden your parameter inputs. This will help you to avoid deployment errors that you could easily prevent by restricting and checking Bicep parameter values.
Tip # 1: Min and Max length of resource names
In our previous post, we have built and demoed the webapp-service-w-param.bicep file. It had no parameter input validation. Thus, that template is open for failures when you enter 'a' for the appServiceAppName input parameter. Here is the link to the repo.
webapp-service-w-param.bicep
However, it is pretty straightforward to avoid such false entries by checking the allowed name length of the Microsoft.Web/serverFarms resource in the Microsoft docs Resource name rules page.
Based on “Resource name rules” page we can add following functions:
The @minLength and @maxLength function are going to define and enforce min and max length of the parameter, while @description will help to define the purpose of the parameter.
Tip # 2: Defining purpose of the parameter
It is always helpful to add meaningful description to your parameters, even though it is not required by Azure Bicep template. Believe it or not, people who are new to your code will appreciate it. For example: we have a location parameter in our template, and adding the following description clarifies the purpose of this parameter for everyone, including myself, later in a month when I am re-visiting my code.
Tip # 3: Restricting parameter value entries that match your organization’s policy
The final tip is already revealed in our screen-shot above. It makes a valid and important sense to enforce your organization’s Azure policies on any provisioning scripts, in addition to the Azure Policies.
In our example: we are restricting deployment of Azure resources only into the following Azure regions to comply with the company policy to make every party happy.
Thus, I have shared a few tips that you could use to harden your Azure Bicep code and avoid some common deployment errors in advance.
Here is the complete view into our hardened webapp-service Bicep file:
Summary
Preventing deployment failures, especially the once that are caused by invalid input parameters are an easy fix on an Azure Bicep language. Checking the resource name restrictions and allowed values is one easy tip to prevent those errors. I would recommend checking the Microsoft documentation on “Naming rules and restrictions for Azure resources” and bookmark it for your reference.
Thank you π for reading this post and learning how to prevent Azure Bicep deployment failures by hardening the input parameter values.
Please check out the Learn Bicep GitHub repo, and follow it. Thanks, π π!
Stay tuned for more Azure automation & Azure Bicep posts.
