Azure Container Instances Overview

Azure Container Instances (ACI) offers the fastest and simplest way to run a container in Azure. It allows you to run containers without managing virtual machines or adopting a higher-level orchestration service like Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

Key Concepts

Container Groups: A container group is the smallest deployable compute resource in Azure Container Instances. It represents a collection of containers that share the same execution environment, network resources, and storage resources.
Serverless Compute: ACI provides a serverless compute experience, meaning you don't need to provision or manage underlying infrastructure. Azure handles the orchestration and management for you.
Fast Deployment: Launch containers in seconds, making it ideal for dev/test scenarios, simple web apps, and task automation.
Per-Second Billing: You are billed for the vCPU and memory resources allocated to your container group, charged per second.

Common Use Cases

CI/CD Tasks

Run build tasks, tests, or deployment scripts as ephemeral containers.

Data Streaming

Process or aggregate real-time data streams from sources like Event Hubs or Kafka.

Web Apps & APIs

Deploy simple web applications or APIs that don't require complex orchestration.

Batch Processing

Execute short-lived batch jobs or scheduled tasks.

Development & Testing

Quickly spin up containers for testing code changes without complex setup.

Benefits of ACI

Simplicity: No infrastructure management required.
Speed: Deploy containers in seconds.
Cost-Effectiveness: Pay only for the resources you consume, with per-second billing.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Azure services like Azure Monitor, Azure Policy, and Azure DevOps.
Customizable Networking: Assign public IP addresses and FQDNs, or deploy within virtual networks.

Getting Started

You can create and manage container groups using:

Azure Portal: A user-friendly web interface.
Azure CLI: Powerful command-line interface for automation.
Azure PowerShell: For scripting and automation in a PowerShell environment.
ARM Templates/Bicep: For infrastructure as code deployments.

Example using Azure CLI:


az container create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name mycontainer \
    --image myacr.azurecr.io/myapp:v1 \
    --dns-name-label mycontainer-myapp \
    --ports 80

For more detailed information and advanced scenarios, please refer to the official Azure Container Instances Advanced Guide.