Azure 101

When we mention Azure in this chapter, we mean Azure Resource Manager exclusively, as opposed to the old Azure Service Manager (ASM), with its cloud services. Azure has come a long way since ASM, and there is no reason to use it anymore.

The Azure PowerShell cmdlets are available with the Azure SDK, which includes a couple of additional features, such as a storage explorer. Being PowerShell enthusiasts, we can simply use PackageManagement and PowerShellGet, as follows:

# Installing the Azure modules
# Pro tip: Get a coffee right now, this takes a little time...
Install-Module AzureRm -Force

# Before you can do anything, you need to login
Connect-AzureRmAccount -Subscription 'JHPaaS'

In order to establish a common understanding of what is going on in the cloud, we will need to define a couple of terms.

Resource groups

The resources in Azure are typically grouped into resource groups. A resource group serves as a container for resources, and you can use role-based access control with...