Deploying Multiple Resources Using an Azure JSON File

 
This post will show you how to deploy multiple resources in a fairly simple example of an Azure Resource Manager JSON file, which was created in the following posts:

• Understanding the Structure of an Azure JSON File
• Using VS Code to Edit Azure JSON Templates
• Building a Simple Azure JSON File

 

The Starting Point

We will start with a pretty simple JSON that deploys a storage account into a resource group. The template asks, using parameters, the administrator to name the storage account and select a resiliency level for the Standard Storage (HDD) account. A variable (RGLocation) retrieves the Azure region of the desired resource group and is used to automatically place the new storage account into the same Azure region.

{
    "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
    "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
    "parameters": {
        "Storage Account Name": {
            "defaultValue": null,
            "type": "string"
        },
        "Storage Account Resiliency":
            {
            "type": "string",
            "defaultValue": "Standard_LRS",
            "allowedValues":
                [
                "Standard_LRS",
                "Standard_GRS"
                ]
        }    
    },
    "variables": {
        "RGLocation": "[resourceGroup().location]"
    },
    "resources": [
        {
            "comments": "Will be used to store virtual machines in this resource group",
            "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts",
            "sku": {
                "name": "[parameters('Storage Account Resiliency')]",
                "tier": "Standard"
            },
            "kind": "Storage",
            "name": "[parameters('Storage Account Name')]",
            "apiVersion": "2016-01-01",
            "location": "[variables('RGLocation')]",
            "tags": {},
            "properties": {},
            "resources": [],
            "dependsOn": []
        }
    ]
}

Expanding the JSON Template

I want to add some resources to this JSON:

• A virtual network
• An availability set

I could learn how to build out the syntax of these resources, but the snippets functionality of VS Code allows me to quickly add arm-vn (VNet) and arm-avail (availability set) resources to the template.

The Virtual Network

I added a comma to the brace that marks the end of the storage account resource, and then the following code is automatically added when I added an arm-vn snippet:

I want to make a few changes. I will change the location setting so that it uses my RGLocation variable instead of running the resourceGroup() function again.

I am also going to convert the following settings into parameters with default values:

• name: The desired name of the virtual network.
• displayName: This will have the same value as name.
• addressSpace\addressPrefixes: The network address of the new VNet.
• subnets\name: The name of each of the 2 default subnets.
• subnets\addressPrefix: The subnet address of each subnet, within the address space of the VNet.

I will have the following new parameters to customize the new network at the time of deployment:

And the new resource description that uses those parameters and the RGLocation variable will look as follows:

The Availability Set

I added a comma after the brace that ends the VNet definition and then typed arm-availability to add an availability set, as shown below.

I want to make two changes to this availability set:

• name: Change this to a parameter.
• displayName: Use the same value as name.
• location: Use the RGLocation variable.

I will add a single parameter to the JSON file for the availability set:

The customized resource definition for the availability set is next:

The Complete JSON Template

Copying snippets from a website is a nightmare, so here is the complete JSON file:

{
    "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
    "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
    "parameters": {
        "Storage Account Name": {
            "defaultValue": null,
            "type": "string"
        },
        "Storage Account Resiliency": {
            "type": "string",
            "defaultValue": "Standard_LRS",
            "allowedValues": [
                "Standard_LRS",
                "Standard_GRS"
            ]
        },
        "Network Name": {
            "defaultValue": "nw-petri",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "Network Address": {
            "defaultValue": "10.0.0.0/16",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "Subnet-1 Name": {
            "defaultValue": "sn-petri-01",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "Subnet-1 Address": {
            "defaultValue": "10.0.0.0/24",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "Subnet-2 Name": {
            "defaultValue": "sn-petri-02",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "Subnet-2 Address": {
            "defaultValue": "10.0.1.0/24",
            "type": "string"
        },
        "Availability Set Name": {
            "defaultValue": "as-petri-01",
            "type": "string"
        }
    },
    "variables": {
        "RGLocation": "[resourceGroup().location]"
    },
    "resources": [
        {
            "comments": "Will be used to store virtual machines in this resource group",
            "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts",
            "sku": {
                "name": "[parameters('Storage Account Resiliency')]",
                "tier": "Standard"
            },
            "kind": "Storage",
            "name": "[parameters('Storage Account Name')]",
            "apiVersion": "2016-01-01",
            "location": "[variables('RGLocation')]",
            "tags": {},
            "properties": {},
            "resources": [],
            "dependsOn": []
        },
        {
            "apiVersion": "2015-06-15",
            "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks",
            "name": "[parameters('Network Name')]",
            "location": "[variables('RGLocation')]",
            "tags": {
                "displayName": "[parameters('Network Name')]"
            },
            "properties": {
                "addressSpace": {
                    "addressPrefixes": [
                        "[parameters('Network Address')]"
                    ]
                },
                "subnets": [
                    {
                        "name": "[parameters('Subnet-1 Name')]",
                        "properties": {
                            "addressPrefix": "[parameters('Subnet-1 Address')]",
                        }
                    },
                    {
                        "name": "[parameters('Subnet-2 Name')]",
                        "properties": {
                            "addressPrefix": "[parameters('Subnet-2 Address')]",
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        },
        {
            "type": "Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets",
            "name": "[parameters('Availability Set Name')]",
            "apiVersion": "2015-06-15",
            "location": "[variables('RGLocation')]",
            "tags": {
                "displayName": "[parameters('Availability Set Name')]"
            },
            "properties": {}
        }
    ]
}

You can deploy this template in several ways to quickly deploy a storage account, a virtual network (with two subnets), and an availability set with a minimal amount of effort, and you’ll get a consistent result every time.