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Azure CLI

Azure CLI (az) commands for compute, storage, networking, AKS, identity and more

Auth & Account Setup

bash·Interactive login

az login

bash·Login with service principal

az login --service-principal -u <app-id> -p <password> --tenant <tenant-id>

bash·Login with managed identity (inside Azure VM/ACI)

az login --identity

bash·List subscriptions

az account list --output table

bash·Set active subscription

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

bash·Show current account & subscription

az account show

bash·List available locations

az account list-locations --output table

bash·Logout

az logout

Resource Groups

Create, inspect and clean up resource groups

bash·List resource groups

az group list --output table

bash·Create resource group

az group create --name <rg> --location eastus

bash·Show resource group details

az group show --name <rg>

bash·List all resources inside a group

az resource list --resource-group <rg> --output table

bash·Delete resource group (and everything in it)

az group delete --name <rg> --yes --no-wait

bash·Export group as ARM template

az group export --name <rg> > rg-template.json

Virtual Machines

Create, start, stop and connect to Azure VMs

bash·List VMs

az vm list --output table

bash·Show VM status

az vm get-instance-view --name <vm> --resource-group <rg> --query instanceView.statuses

bash·Create Ubuntu VM with SSH key

az vm create \
  --resource-group <rg> \
  --name <vm> \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --size Standard_B2s \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys

bash·Start VM

az vm start --name <vm> --resource-group <rg>

bash·Stop VM (deallocate to stop billing)

az vm deallocate --name <vm> --resource-group <rg>

bash·Restart VM

az vm restart --name <vm> --resource-group <rg>

bash·Delete VM

az vm delete --name <vm> --resource-group <rg> --yes

bash·SSH via Azure Bastion (no public IP needed)

az network bastion ssh --name <bastion> --resource-group <rg> --target-resource-id <vm-id> --auth-type ssh-key --username azureuser --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_rsa

bash·Open port on VM NSG

az vm open-port --port 443 --name <vm> --resource-group <rg>

bash·List available VM sizes in region

az vm list-sizes --location eastus --output table

Storage — Accounts & Blobs

Manage storage accounts, containers and blob objects

bash·List storage accounts

az storage account list --output table

bash·Create storage account

az storage account create \
  --name <account> \
  --resource-group <rg> \
  --location eastus \
  --sku Standard_LRS \
  --kind StorageV2

bash·Get storage account connection string

az storage account show-connection-string --name <account> --resource-group <rg> --output tsv

bash·List blob containers

az storage container list --account-name <account> --output table

bash·Create blob container

az storage container create --name <container> --account-name <account>

bash·Upload file to blob

az storage blob upload --account-name <account> --container-name <container> --name <blob-name> --file ./local-file.txt

bash·Download blob

az storage blob download --account-name <account> --container-name <container> --name <blob-name> --file ./output.txt

bash·List blobs in container

az storage blob list --account-name <account> --container-name <container> --output table

bash·Delete blob

az storage blob delete --account-name <account> --container-name <container> --name <blob-name>

bash·Generate SAS token for a blob (1 hour)

az storage blob generate-sas --account-name <account> --container-name <container> --name <blob> --permissions r --expiry $(date -u -d '1 hour' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%MZ) --output tsv

AKS — Azure Kubernetes Service

Create and manage AKS clusters and node pools

bash·List clusters

az aks list --output table

bash·Create AKS cluster

az aks create \
  --resource-group <rg> \
  --name <cluster> \
  --node-count 3 \
  --node-vm-size Standard_D4s_v3 \
  --enable-managed-identity \
  --enable-addons monitoring \
  --generate-ssh-keys

bash·Get credentials (update kubeconfig)

az aks get-credentials --resource-group <rg> --name <cluster>

bash·Get credentials (admin)

az aks get-credentials --resource-group <rg> --name <cluster> --admin

bash·Show cluster details

az aks show --resource-group <rg> --name <cluster> --output table

bash·Scale node pool

az aks scale --resource-group <rg> --name <cluster> --node-count 5

bash·Upgrade cluster

az aks upgrade --resource-group <rg> --name <cluster> --kubernetes-version <version>

bash·List available Kubernetes versions

az aks get-versions --location eastus --output table

bash·List node pools

az aks nodepool list --resource-group <rg> --cluster-name <cluster> --output table

bash·Add spot node pool

az aks nodepool add \
  --resource-group <rg> \
  --cluster-name <cluster> \
  --name spotnodes \
  --priority Spot \
  --eviction-policy Delete \
  --spot-max-price -1 \
  --node-vm-size Standard_D4s_v3 \
  --node-count 1 \
  --enable-cluster-autoscaler --min-count 0 --max-count 10

bash·Delete cluster

az aks delete --resource-group <rg> --name <cluster> --yes --no-wait

Azure Container Registry (ACR)

Build, push and pull container images with ACR

bash·Create registry

az acr create --resource-group <rg> --name <registry> --sku Basic

bash·List registries

az acr list --output table

bash·Login to registry

az acr login --name <registry>

bash·Build and push image with ACR Tasks

az acr build --registry <registry> --image <image>:<tag> .

bash·List repositories

az acr repository list --name <registry> --output table

bash·List tags for a repository

az acr repository show-tags --name <registry> --repository <image> --output table

bash·Delete an image tag

az acr repository delete --name <registry> --image <image>:<tag> --yes

bash·Attach ACR to AKS (grants pull permission)

az aks update --resource-group <rg> --name <cluster> --attach-acr <registry>

Networking

VNets, subnets, NSGs and public IP addresses

bash·List virtual networks

az network vnet list --output table

bash·Create VNet with subnet

az network vnet create \
  --resource-group <rg> \
  --name <vnet> \
  --address-prefix 10.0.0.0/16 \
  --subnet-name default \
  --subnet-prefix 10.0.0.0/24

bash·List subnets in a VNet

az network vnet subnet list --resource-group <rg> --vnet-name <vnet> --output table

bash·List network security groups

az network nsg list --output table

bash·Add NSG inbound rule

az network nsg rule create --resource-group <rg> --nsg-name <nsg> --name allow-https --priority 100 --protocol Tcp --destination-port-ranges 443 --access Allow --direction Inbound

bash·List public IP addresses

az network public-ip list --output table

bash·Create static public IP

az network public-ip create --resource-group <rg> --name <ip-name> --allocation-method Static --sku Standard

bash·List load balancers

az network lb list --output table

IAM & RBAC

Manage service principals, managed identities and role assignments

bash·List role assignments in subscription

az role assignment list --all --output table

bash·Assign role to user

az role assignment create \
  --assignee <user-email-or-object-id> \
  --role "Contributor" \
  --scope /subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<rg>

bash·Remove role assignment

az role assignment delete --assignee <user> --role "Contributor" --resource-group <rg>

bash·Create service principal with Contributor role

az ad sp create-for-rbac --name <sp-name> --role Contributor --scopes /subscriptions/<subscription-id>

bash·List service principals

az ad sp list --show-mine --output table

bash·Reset service principal credentials

az ad sp credential reset --id <app-id>

bash·Create user-assigned managed identity

az identity create --resource-group <rg> --name <identity-name>

bash·List managed identities

az identity list --output table

bash·List built-in roles

az role definition list --custom-role-only false --query '[].roleName' --output tsv | sort

Key Vault — Secrets & Keys

Store and retrieve secrets, keys and certificates

bash·Create Key Vault

az keyvault create --name <vault> --resource-group <rg> --location eastus

bash·List Key Vaults

az keyvault list --output table

bash·Set a secret

az keyvault secret set --vault-name <vault> --name <secret-name> --value 'my-secret-value'

bash·Get a secret value

az keyvault secret show --vault-name <vault> --name <secret-name> --query value --output tsv

bash·List secrets

az keyvault secret list --vault-name <vault> --output table

bash·Delete a secret

az keyvault secret delete --vault-name <vault> --name <secret-name>

bash·Grant identity access to vault secrets

az keyvault set-policy --name <vault> --object-id <identity-object-id> --secret-permissions get list

bash·List certificates

az keyvault certificate list --vault-name <vault> --output table

App Service

Deploy and manage web apps on Azure App Service

bash·List App Service plans

az appservice plan list --output table

bash·Create App Service plan

az appservice plan create \
  --name <plan> \
  --resource-group <rg> \
  --sku B2 \
  --is-linux

bash·Create web app (Node.js)

az webapp create --resource-group <rg> --plan <plan> --name <app> --runtime 'NODE:20-lts'

bash·Deploy from local git

az webapp up --name <app> --resource-group <rg> --runtime 'NODE:20-lts'

bash·List web apps

az webapp list --output table

bash·Stream live logs

az webapp log tail --name <app> --resource-group <rg>

bash·Set app setting (environment variable)

az webapp config appsettings set --name <app> --resource-group <rg> --settings KEY=value

bash·List app settings

az webapp config appsettings list --name <app> --resource-group <rg> --output table

bash·Restart web app

az webapp restart --name <app> --resource-group <rg>

bash·Browse web app URL

az webapp browse --name <app> --resource-group <rg>

Monitoring & Diagnostics

Query activity logs, metrics and set up alerts

bash·List recent activity log entries

az monitor activity-log list --offset 1h --output table

bash·Filter activity log by resource group

az monitor activity-log list --resource-group <rg> --offset 24h --output table

bash·List metric definitions for a resource

az monitor metrics list-definitions --resource <resource-id> --output table

bash·Get metric values (CPU last hour)

az monitor metrics list --resource <resource-id> --metric 'Percentage CPU' --interval PT5M --output table

bash·List alert rules

az monitor alert list --output table

bash·List Log Analytics workspaces

az monitor log-analytics workspace list --output table

bash·Run KQL query against Log Analytics

az monitor log-analytics query --workspace <workspace-id> --analytics-query 'AzureActivity | take 10' --output table