Guide to Azure Resource Manager (ARM) for 2024

Through this blog post, we will explore the prominent characteristics of Azure Resource Manager, elucidate its advantages, and understand its operational mechanism.

Given below are the topics we are going to discuss in this blog:

• What is Azure Resource Manager?
• Why do we Need Azure Resource Manager?
• How does Azure Manager Work?
• Architecture of Azure Resource Manager
• Difference between Azure Classic and Azure Resource Manager
• Use Cases of Azure Resource Manager
• Conclusion 

Watch this tutorial on Microsoft Azure Training:

What is Azure Resource Manager?

Azure Resource Manager serves as a comprehensive management layer within the Azure platform. Its primary function is to streamline the creation, management, and deployment of resources across various Azure services. 

By offering a unified platform, Azure Resource Manager enables efficient organization and oversight of all resources deployed in an Azure environment. These resources encompass a wide range of components, such as virtual machines, storage accounts, and network resources, among numerous others. Azure Resource Manager leverages template to automate the deployment and configuration of resources, simplifying the process of scaling and maintaining cloud environments.

Why do we Need Azure Resource Manager?

Azure Resource Manager is essential to manage Azure resources for various reasons.

As an initial step, Azure Resource Manager provides a centralized platform that streamlines the management of resources deployed in an Azure environment. This centralized approach allows for effortless tracking and administration of resources as a unified entity. Furthermore, Azure Resource Manager introduces the concept of Resource Groups, enabling the logical organization of resources according to specific projects or applications. This logical grouping enhances the efficiency of monitoring and ensures a streamlined management process for resources within the Azure environment.

Secondly, Azure Resource Manager enables automation and simplifies the deployment and configuration of resources through templates. Templates define the resources that need to be deployed and their properties and dependencies, ensuring that resources are deployed consistently with the correct settings. This automation saves time and minimizes the likelihood of errors, making it easier to scale and maintain cloud environments.

Thirdly, Azure Resource Manager offers robust role-based access control (RBAC) capabilities, enabling users to manage and control who can access and manage resources. This ensures that resources are secure and that they comply with regulatory requirements.

Lastly, Azure Resource Manager provides better cost management through the use of tagging, which enables resources to be labeled with metadata such as project names, environments, and cost centers. This simplifies searching and filtering resources, monitoring usage, and allocating costs to specific projects or departments.

How does Azure Manager Work?

Azure Resource Manager functions as a management layer that helps users create, deploy, and manage resources across multiple Azure services. Here is an overview of how Azure Resource Manager works:

The initial step is to create a Resource Group that acts as a logical container for resources belonging to a specific application or project. Resource groups assist users in organizing and managing their resources in an efficient manner.

Users can deploy resources, including virtual machines, storage accounts, and network resources, into the Resource Group after it has been created. The Azure portal, Azure Resource Manager PowerShell, and Azure CLI are just a few of the methods that can be used to deploy these resources.

After deployment, Azure Resource Manager provides a unified platform for managing and organizing all the resources deployed in an Azure environment. To automate resource deployment and configuration and simplify the process of scaling and maintaining cloud environments, users can manage these resources using templates.

Azure Resource Manager also offers robust RBAC capabilities, empowering users to control access and management of resources. This ensures that resources are secure and compliant with regulatory requirements.

Furthermore, Azure Resource Manager streamlines cost management by using tagging, allowing users to label resources with metadata such as project names, environments, and cost centers. This simplifies resource tracking, usage monitoring, and cost allocation to specific projects or departments.

Architecture of Azure Resource Manager

The Resource Manager service, the Azure Resource Manager API, Resource Providers, and Resources make up the four core parts of the Azure Resource Manager (Azure Resource Manager) architecture.

• Resource Manager Service: The primary management layer of Azure Resource Manager is the Resource Manager service. It is in charge of managing subscriptions, generating and managing resource groups, authenticating and authorizing users, and measuring resource usage.
• Azure Resource Manager API: The Resource Manager service may be accessed through the REST-based Azure Resource Manager API. Users are able to install and manage resource templates as well as carry out actions on resources including creating, modifying, and removing resources.
• Resource Providers: Azure services that support Azure Resource Manager are known as resource providers. They are in charge of overseeing the management of particular resources, including virtual machines, storage accounts, and network resources. For their resources, each Resource Provider implements the Azure Resource Manager API.
• Resources: The actual components that users deploy and control using Azure Resource Manager are called resources. The properties of the resource, such as its dependencies, metadata, and configuration settings, are described using JSON templates. A URI that contains the resource type, name, and resource group uniquely identifies each resource.

Difference between Azure Classic and Azure Resource Manager

Here’s a tabular comparison between Azure Classic and Azure Resource Manager (Azure Resource Manager):

Use Cases of Azure Resource Manager

Here are some common use cases for Azure Resource Manager:

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): The infrastructure and resources needed for your apps may be declaratively defined using Azure Resource Manager templates. As a result, complex settings may be deployed and managed with ease because of automation and repeatability.
• DevOps: To automate the deployment and management of resources, Azure Resource Manager may be connected with DevOps tools like Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, and Jenkins. This enables continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
• Multi-Tenant Applications: Resource groups may be created using Azure Resource Manager and used to manage resources for a number of clients or tenants. This provides separation between tenants and enables more effective resource management and invoicing.
• Compliance: Through the definition of policies that enforce security and compliance standards across your Azure resources, Azure Resource Manager may be used to guarantee compliance with legal obligations.
• Disaster Recovery: For disaster recovery scenarios, Azure Resource Manager templates may be used to swiftly and easily deploy resources to a backup location.

Conclusion

As businesses increasingly transition to cloud-based infrastructure and services, the utilization of Azure Resource Manager is expected to expand. Azure Resource Manager will play a vital role in effectively managing and delivering cloud resources at a larger scale, aligning with the growing demand for cloud computing.