{"id":16366,"date":"2021-09-03T08:55:31","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T12:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/?p=16366"},"modified":"2022-11-27T06:44:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T11:44:08","slug":"infrastructure-as-code-iac-azure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/infrastructure-as-code-iac-azure\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Best Azure Infrastructure Automation Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span>Azure Automation<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"AzureAzure automation using infrastructure as code (IaC) and scale-up\/down is becoming the new normal. Solution architects and system administrators are becoming coders and scripting is becoming part of their day-to-day job, while in parallel a raft of vendors is providing products to try and help avoid this need to script and address the shortage of staff with those skills to script and code this now necessary functionality.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s blog is a collection of the hottest and most ubiquitous Azure automation tools and technologies you are likely to see in the Azure ecosystem augmenting and extending the limitations of the native functionality, plus some links to the best bloggers, how-to-guides, and places to find information.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Top Microsoft Azure Automation Tools<\/span><\/h2>\n
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  1. 1 Project Bicep<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. 2 Terraform<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. 3 GitHub<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. 4 Packer<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. 5 Nerdio<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. 6 Chocolatey<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n

    <\/span>Project Bicep<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

    \"biceps\"ARM (Azure Resource Manager) templates can be used to define your Azure infrastructure and can be written as JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) schema files. JSON is a widely used open standard file<\/a> and data format. As such, it can take several lines of code to do some common Azure tasks and JSON itself is rather keen on defining scope with what always seems like an excessive number of every type of brackets, quote mark, comma and punctuation mark going. Microsoft has provided an alternative to JSON in Bicep, a domain-specific language designed to be succinct for Azure (and with less annoying commas\/syntax marks). Bicep templates can then be converted (exploded) to their larger JSON equivalents and processed.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s a smart move by Microsoft as simplifying template creation will not only increase user adoption but also involve users committing to and investing in proprietary format and domain-specific skills. Thus, making shifting to a different cloud become a little more unpalatable.<\/p>\n

    See: GitHub – Azure\/bicep: Bicep is a declarative language for describing and deploying Azure resources<\/a><\/p>\n

    If you are looking to find out more about Bicep, it won\u2019t be long before you trip over Freek Berson and his blog<\/a>, or his frequent partner-in-crime Esther Barthel. They\u2019ve done some great video sessions, such as: Empowering ARM and JSON with Project ‘Bicep’ – Esther Barthel & Freek Berson – YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

    And Empowering your WVD deployments with Project Bicep, experiences from the field, Freek Berson – YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

    And Freek\u2019s blog \u201c Using Project ‘Bicep’ (Preview) to create ARM Templates that deploy WVD!<\/a>\u201d remains a must read.<\/p>\n

    Other respected community contributors include Ciraltos\u2019 Travis Roberts<\/a>. Microsoft themselves have also put some great overviews out<\/a>; Brendan Burn\u2019s has a great Bicep 101 YouTube overview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    <\/span>Terraform by HashiCorp<\/span><\/h3>\n

    \"Terraform\"Terraform<\/a> is an open-source infrastructure as code software tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure. Terraform is in many ways the opposite of Project Bicep. Rather than something more bespoke for Azure than the native JSON options, Terraform supports multiple clouds so users can use the same tool for GCP, Azure, and AWS.<\/p>\n

    There are two drivers to cloud agnostic tooling:<\/b><\/p>\n