Azure Resource Manager Template Structure

By now you should have an understanding of Azure Resource Manager and the template capability it has to offer. In this step, we’ll delve into the details of Azure Resource Manager templates and understand what it means and how it works.

What is an Azure Resource Manager Template?

The Azure Resource Manager service provisions resources in an Azure account and enables you to work with the resources in your solution (virtual machines, storage accounts, and virtual networks, for example) as a group. You can deploy, update, or delete all the resources in your solution as a group. You use a template for deployment, and that template can work for different environments.

Azure Resource Manager Template Structure

An Azure Resource Manager template consists of JSON and expressions that you can use to construct values for your deployment. You must limit the size of your template to 1 megabyte (MB), and each parameter file to 64 kilobytes (KB). The 1 MB limit applies to the final state of the template after it has been expanded with iterative resource definitions and values for variables and parameters.

**{**

**"$schema": "http://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",**

**"contentVersion": "",**

**"parameters": {**** ****},**

**"variables": {**** ****},**

**"resources": [**** ****],**

**"outputs": {**** ****}**

**}**

• Schema: Location of the JSON schema file that describes the version of the template language.
• ContentVersion: Version of the template (such as 1.0.0.0).
• Parameters: Optional values that are provided when deployment is executed to customise resource deployment.
• Resources: A manageable item that is available through Azure. Some common resources are a virtual machine, storage account, web app, database, and virtual network, but there are many more.
• Outputs: Values that are returned after deployment.