TopolearnThe CLI is the fastest way to explore Azure and the glue of most scripts and pipelines.
The Azure CLI (az) is a cross-platform command line for everything in Azure Resource Manager. Commands follow az <group> <subgroup> <verb>: az storage account create, az vm list, az webapp log tail.
Getting started:
az loginopens a browser (or use--use-device-code);az account showprints the current subscription;az account set -s <name or id>switches.az configure --defaults group=rg-demo location=westeuropesaves you from repeating-gand-l.- Every command has
--help, andaz find "create storage"suggests examples.
Output is JSON by default. -o table, -o tsv and -o yaml change the format, and --query takes a JMESPath expression to filter and reshape it, client side. -o tsv with a single field is the idiom for capturing a value in a shell variable.
az rest calls any ARM REST endpoint with your login token, which is handy for brand-new API features the CLI doesn't wrap yet. Cloud Shell in the portal has az preinstalled and already logged in.
In automation, never use a personal login: use a service principal or, better, a managed identity or workload identity federation, covered later.
Example
az login
az account set --subscription "Contoso Dev"
az configure --defaults group=rg-demo location=westeurope
az group create --name rg-demo
az storage account create --name stdemo$RANDOM --sku Standard_LRS
# JMESPath: names and SKUs of every storage account
az storage account list --query "[].{name:name, sku:sku.name}" -o table
# Capture one value into a variable
ID=$(az storage account list --query "[0].id" -o tsv)
echo "$ID" # /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/rg-demo/providers/Microsoft.Storage/...Remember
- Commands read az <group> <verb>; --help on anything
- --query (JMESPath) filters output; -o tsv captures single values
- az configure --defaults removes repetitive -g/-l flags
Watch out for
- Parsing JSON output with grep or sed instead of using --query.