Automated Azure VM Provisioning Using Bicep & Azure CLI

This project demonstrates how to automate the deployment of Azure Virtual Machines using Bicep (Infrastructure as Code) and Azure CLI. It is designed for beginners and intermediate Azure Infrastructure Engineers, with step-by-step instructions, including installation, setup, deployment, validation, and cleanup.

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📌 Project Overview

This project automates the provisioning of:

• A Resource Group
• A Virtual Network & Subnet
• A Network Interface
• A Public IP
• A Network Security Group
• A Virtual Machine (Windows/Linux)
• VM Extensions (optional)

All resources are deployed using a Bicep template executed through Azure CLI.

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🚀 Prerequisites (Install These First)

Follow the steps in order.

1. Install Azure CLI

Download & install Azure CLI: https://learn.microsoft.com/cli/azure/install-azure-cli

Verify installation:

az --version

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2. Install Bicep CLI

Run:

az bicep install

Verify:

az bicep version

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3. Install VS Code (Recommended)

Download: https://code.visualstudio.com/

Install extensions:

• Bicep Extension
• Azure CLI Tools Extension

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🔐 Login to Azure

Run:

az login

Select your Azure account.

(Optional) set subscription:

az account set --subscription "<subscription-name-or-id>"

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📁 Project Folder Structure

Azure-VM-Automation/
│── main.bicep
│── parameters.json
│── deploy.sh (optional for automated script)
│── README.md

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🧾 1. main.bicep Template

Create a file main.bicep and paste this basic template:

param location string = resourceGroup().location
param vmName string
param adminUsername string
param adminPassword string

resource vnet 'Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks@2023-04-01' = {
  name: '${vmName}-vnet'
  location: location
  properties: {
    addressSpace: {
      addressPrefixes: [ '10.0.0.0/16' ]
    }
    subnets: [
      {
        name: 'default'
        properties: {
          addressPrefix: '10.0.1.0/24'
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

resource publicIP 'Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses@2023-04-01' = {
  name: '${vmName}-pip'
  location: location
  properties: {
    publicIPAllocationMethod: 'Dynamic'
  }
}

resource nic 'Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces@2023-04-01' = {
  name: '${vmName}-nic'
  location: location
  properties: {
    ipConfigurations: [
      {
        name: 'ipconfig1'
        properties: {
          subnet: {
            id: vnet.properties.subnets[0].id
          }
          publicIPAddress: {
            id: publicIP.id
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

resource vm 'Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines@2023-09-01' = {
  name: vmName
  location: location
  properties: {
    hardwareProfile: {
      vmSize: 'Standard_B1s'
    }
    storageProfile: {
      imageReference: {
        publisher: 'Canonical'
        offer: '0001-com-ubuntu-server-focal'
        sku: '20_04-lts'
        version: 'latest'
      }
      osDisk: {
        createOption: 'FromImage'
      }
    }
    osProfile: {
      computerName: vmName
      adminUsername: adminUsername
      adminPassword: adminPassword
    }
    networkProfile: {
      networkInterfaces: [
        {
          id: nic.id
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

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🧾 2. parameters.json File

Create this file:

{
  "vmName": { "value": "myAzureVM" },
  "adminUsername": { "value": "azureuser" },
  "adminPassword": { "value": "YourPassword123!" }
}

⚠ Use a strong password or enable SSH for Linux.

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🚀 Deploy the VM (Azure CLI Command)

Open terminal inside project folder:

az group create -n vm-rg -l eastus

Deploy:

az deployment group create \
  --resource-group vm-rg \
  --template-file main.bicep \
  --parameters @parameters.json

Deployment takes 2–3 minutes.

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🧪 Post-Deployment Verification

Check resources:

az vm list -g vm-rg -o table

Get public IP:

az vm show -g vm-rg -n myAzureVM -d --query publicIps -o tsv

SSH into VM:

ssh azureuser@<public-ip>

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🧹 Cleanup Resources

If you want to delete everything:

az group delete -n vm-rg --yes --no-wait