In this lab, I dove into the fundamentals of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates. The goal was simple but powerful: write, deploy, and modify an ARM template using VS Code and the Azure CLI — all within my own subscription.

💼 Scenario

As a cloud administrator, I needed to automate the deployment of infrastructure. In this lab, I:

  • ✅ Created and deployed a blank ARM template
  • ✅ Modified it to deploy a Storage Account
  • ✅ Practiced real-world deployment from Visual Studio Code
  • ✅ Troubleshot issues on macOS (and learned a ton!)

🛠️ Prerequisites I Used

To complete this lab, I had:

  • ✅ My Azure subscription
  • ✅ Visual Studio Code
  • ✅ The Azure CLI (eventually 😅)
  • ✅ The ARM Tools extension installed in VS Code

🧪 Task 1: Create and Deploy a Blank ARM Template

🔹 Step 1: Create the Template in VS Code

I opened VS Code and created a new file named azuredeploy.json. Then I typed arm! and selected the ARM Template snippet. That gave me this basic template:

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {},
  "functions": [],
  "variables": {},
  "resources": [],
  "outputs": {}
}

💡 VS Code popped up a message about a missing parameters file — but no worries, I ignored it for now since I wasn’t using parameters yet.

🔹 Step 2: Fixing Azure CLI on macOS 😅

I hit a snag when trying to run az login:

bash: az: command not found

🧰 How I Fixed It:

  1. ✅ Installed Homebrew first (since I didn’t have it): 
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
  1. ✅ Installed Azure CLI: 
brew update && brew install azure-cli
  1. ✅ Verified the installation: 
az version
  1. ✅ Fixed the PATH in both Zsh and Bash profiles: 
echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zprofile
source ~/.zprofile

Now az was working!

🔹 Step 3: Log In and Create Resource Group

With the CLI working, I logged into Azure:

az login

I selected my subscription (my first ever subscription) and created a resource group:

az group create --name RG1 --location "East US"

🔹 Step 4: Deploy the Blank Template

I deployed the blank ARM template like this:

templateFile="azuredeploy.json"
today=$(date +"%d-%b-%Y")
DeploymentName="blanktemplate-$today"

az deployment group create \
  --resource-group RG1 \
  --name $DeploymentName \
  --template-file $templateFile

✅ I went to the Azure Portal > Resource Groups > RG1 > Deployments — and saw the blank deployment succeed!

🧪 Task 2: Add a Storage Account to the Template

🔹 Step 1: Insert a Storage Resource

Inside the "resources": [] section of azuredeploy.json, I typed storage and selected the arm-storage snippet. It gave me:

{
  "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts",
  "apiVersion": "2021-04-01",
  "name": "[concat('mystorage', uniqueString(resourceGroup().id))]",
  "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
  "sku": {
    "name": "Standard_LRS",
    "tier": "Standard"
  },
  "kind": "StorageV2",
  "properties": {}
}

This snippet auto-generates a unique storage account name based on the resource group ID — a great trick for avoiding name collisions.

🔹 Step 2: Redeploy the Updated Template

With the storage account resource added, I saved the file and redeployed:

templateFile="azuredeploy.json"
today=$(date +"%d-%b-%Y")
DeploymentName="addstorage-$today"

az deployment group create \
  --resource-group RG1 \
  --name $DeploymentName \
  --template-file $templateFile

✅ Back in the portal, I saw:

  • A second deployment listed
  • A new Storage Account successfully created!

🧠 What I Learned

This lab was a perfect intro to ARM templates and IaC. I learned how to:

  • 🔹 Write and structure a basic ARM template
  • 🔹 Deploy infrastructure using the Azure CLI
  • 🔹 Modify the template to include real Azure resources
  • 🔹 Troubleshoot CLI issues on macOS like a pro 😎

🧹 Bonus Tip: Cleanup Resources

If you're practicing in your own subscription, you can remove everything quickly with:

az group delete --name RG1

✅ Key Takeaways

  • ARM templates give you full control over Azure resource deployments
  • VS Code + ARM Tools extension = IaC superpowers 💪
  • Even a simple JSON template can deploy real cloud infrastructure
  • The Azure CLI is essential — and fixing it taught me more than the lab itself!

On to the next lab! 💻🔥