Azure Resource Governance with Template Specs and Bicep

01/05/2023 Version 1.00

In today’s fast-paced world of cloud computing, managing and governing resources is critical for businesses to ensure security, cost-effectiveness, and uniformity in their cloud infrastructure. Microsoft’s Azure platform offers many tools and features to help organizations achieve this goal. Among these tools, Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates have been a popular choice for managing infrastructure as code. However, with the recent introduction of Template Specs and Bicep, managing Azure resources has become even more efficient and user-friendly. This article will explore the benefits of using Template Specs and Bicep for Azure resource governance and provide a comprehensive guide on effectively leveraging these tools.

Introduction to Azure Resource Governance

Resource governance in cloud computing involves implementing policies, procedures, and best practices to manage and maintain cloud resources effectively. Azure provides a variety of native capabilities such as Azure Policy, Blueprints, and Management Groups to address this challenge. Additionally, there are external solutions like Terraform and Pulumi available for users who prefer other platforms.

However, one feature missing from the Azure ecosystem is the ability to store and consume versioned modules from a centralized registry, just like Terraform does. This is where Azure Template Specs and Bicep come into play.

ARM Templates and Their Limitations

Before diving into Template Specs and Bicep, let’s discuss ARM templates and their limitations. ARM templates are JSON files that define the resources and configurations needed to deploy an application or infrastructure in Azure. They provide a way to define infrastructure as code, ensuring that deployments are consistent and repeatable.

Despite their usefulness, ARM templates have some limitations:

They can be verbose, making them difficult to read and manage.
Sharing and using templates can be cumbersome, as they need to be either locally available or have a publicly accessible URL.
Templates can quickly become monolithic and difficult to maintain as the number of resources and dependencies grows.

These limitations have led to the development of Template Specs and Bicep, which aim to address these challenges and provide a more efficient and user-friendly approach to Azure resource governance.

Azure Template Specs and Their Benefits

Azure Template Specs is a new feature introduced by Microsoft to enhance the ARM template experience. Template Specs are first-class Azure Resource types that offer versioning, persistence, and sharing capabilities. They provide a centralized way to store and manage ARM templates, making it easier to share and consume them across an organization.

Some of the key benefits of using Template Specs include:

Versioning: Template Specs can be versioned, allowing users to track and manage changes over time
Centralized Storage: Templates are stored in Azure, making them easily accessible and shareable within an organization.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Template Specs can be secured using Azure RBAC, ensuring that only authorized users can access and deploy them

These features make Template Specs an ideal solution for organizations looking to simplify and streamline their Azure resource governance processes.

Introducing Bicep

Bicep is a new domain-specific language (DSL) developed by Microsoft to simplify the authoring of ARM templates. It offers a cleaner syntax, improved modularity, and better support for code re-use. Bicep is designed as a transparent abstraction over ARM templates, which means that anything achievable with ARM templates can be done with Bicep (with some known limitations).

Bicep’s syntax is designed to be more readable and concise compared to ARM templates. It borrows many concepts from other infrastructure as code languages like Terraform’s HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). Bicep files use the .bicep file extension and can be compiled into ARM JSON templates using the Bicep compiler.

It’s important to note that Bicep is still in the experimental phase and not yet recommended for production use.

Creating and Publishing Template Specs with Bicep

To create and publish a Template Spec using Bicep, follow these steps:

Write a Bicep file: Create a Bicep file that defines the desired resources and configurations. This file will serve as the basis for the Template Spec.
Compile the Bicep file: Use the Bicep compiler to generate an ARM JSON template from the Bicep file. This compiled template will be used to create the Template Spec.
Publish the Template Spec: Use Azure CLI or PowerShell to create and publish the Template Spec to Azure, providing the compiled ARM JSON template and any required metadata.

Following these steps, users can create and publish Template Specs using the Bicep language, making managing and sharing their Azure resource configurations easier.

Consuming Template Specs

Once a Template Spec has been published, consuming it is straightforward. Users only need the Template Spec ID to deploy the resources defined in the template. This ID can be retrieved using Azure CLI or PowerShell, and then passed as a parameter during deployment.

This approach ensures that users have access to the latest Template Spec version without worrying about maintaining local copies or accessing publicly available URLs.

Modularization and Linked Templates

One of the challenges with ARM templates is that they can become large and difficult to manage as the number of resources and dependencies grows. To address this issue, ARM templates support the concept of linked templates, which allows users to break their configurations into smaller, modular files.

Template Specs build on this concept by providing native support for modularity and linked templates. When a main template for a Template Spec references linked templates, the PowerShell and CLI commands can automatically find and package the linked templates from the local drive.

This feature enables users to create more modular and maintainable Azure resource configurations using Template Specs.

CI/CD with GitHub Actions

Integrating Template Specs and Bicep into a CI/CD pipeline can help automate the process of managing and deploying Azure resources. GitHub Actions is a popular choice for implementing CI/CD pipelines, and it can be used to compile Bicep files, publish Template Specs, and deploy resources using the Template Spec ID.

By incorporating Template Specs and Bicep into a CI/CD pipeline, organizations can ensure that their Azure resource configurations are consistently managed and deployed across their environments.

Comparing Bicep with Other Tools

Bicep is not the only tool available for managing Azure resources, and it’s essential to understand its position in the landscape of infrastructure as code tools. While Bicep is designed specifically for Azure and offers a more concise syntax compared to ARM templates, it’s not meant to replace or compete with existing tools like Terraform or Pulumi.

Instead, Bicep aims to provide an additional option for users looking to simplify and streamline their Azure resource governance processes. By focusing on Azure-specific features like Template Specs and offering a more user-friendly syntax, Bicep can be an attractive choice for organizations that are heavily invested in the Azure ecosystem.

Conclusion

Azure resource governance with Template Specs and Bicep offers a powerful and user-friendly approach to managing and deploying Azure resources. Through their modular design, versioning capabilities, and integration with Azure RBAC, Template Specs and Bicep can help organizations simplify their cloud governance processes and ensure consistent, secure deployments.

Bicep and Template Specs are an amazing combination, they show great promise in addressing the challenges associated infrastructure as code and providing a more efficient solution for Azure resource governance. As these tools continue to evolve and mature, they are likely to become an essential part of the Azure ecosystem for many organizations.