Azure Resource Groups

Resource groups are logical containers in Azure that hold related resources for an Azure solution. They simplify management, organization, and access control for your Azure infrastructure.

An overview of Azure Resource Groups and their contained resources.

What are Resource Groups?

A resource group is a collection of Azure resources that you want to manage as a single entity. Resources can include virtual machines, storage accounts, virtual networks, web apps, databases, and more. When you create a resource group, you specify the Azure region where the resource group metadata is stored.

Key Concepts

• Organization: Group resources that share a common lifecycle, management, or billing. For example, all resources for a particular application or environment (dev, test, prod).
• Deployment: Resources in a resource group can be deployed and updated together.
• Access Control: You can apply Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) at the resource group level, inheriting permissions to all resources within it.
• Lifecycle Management: Resources within a resource group typically share the same lifecycle. You can delete a resource group and all its resources at once.
• Location: A resource group has a location, which is where its metadata is stored. This location can be different from the location of the resources it contains.

Creating a Resource Group

You can create resource groups using the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or ARM templates.

Using Azure Portal:

1. Navigate to the Azure portal.
2. Click "Create a resource".
3. Search for "Resource group" and select it.
4. Click "Create".
5. Fill in the subscription, resource group name, and region.
6. Click "Review + create" and then "Create".

Using Azure CLI:

az group create --name MyResourceGroup --location eastus
            

Using Azure PowerShell:

New-AzResourceGroup -Name "MyResourceGroup" -Location "East US"
            

Managing Resource Groups

Once created, you can perform various management operations on resource groups:

• Add resources: Link existing or new resources to a resource group.
• Move resources: Transfer resources between resource groups or even subscriptions.
• Apply tags: Add tags for better organization and cost tracking.
• Set access policies: Manage permissions using RBAC.
• Delete resource groups: Remove a resource group and all its contained resources.

Resource Group Lifecycle

Resources in a resource group are not necessarily deployed at the same time or updated together. However, they are often managed together because they share a common lifecycle. When you delete a resource group, all the resources within that group are also deleted.