From Portal to Script: Automating Azure Resource Provisioning with CLI

From Portal to Script: Automating Azure Resource Provisioning with CLI

In today’s fast-paced cloud ecosystem, manual provisioning is quickly becoming a bottleneck. As developers, DevOps engineers, or infrastructure architects, we need repeatable, version-controlled automation. That’s where Azure CLI and scripting step in.

In this post, we’ll dive into a real-world automation example: provisioning an Azure Resource Group and Storage Account from scratch using only two Azure CLI commands inside a Bash script.

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Real-World Scenario: Rapid Provisioning for Dev/Test Teams

Let’s say your development team needs on-demand storage environments to test new features or upload builds. Rather than requesting access through the portal, you create a standardized script that allows team members to spin up a Resource Group and Storage Account in seconds.

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The Bash Script Breakdown

#!/bin/bash

# Step 1: Create a resource group
az group create -l eastus2 -n GrupoRecursosCLI

# Step 2: Create a basic storage account
az storage account create -n cuentacliamin001 -g GrupoRecursosCLI -l eastus2 --sku Standard_LRS

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Why This Script Matters

Feature	Benefit
az group create	Logical grouping of Azure resources for access control and lifecycle
az storage account create	Provision Azure Blob/Table/File/Queue storage
--sku Standard_LRS	Cost-efficient, locally-redundant storage ideal for non-critical environments
--location eastus2	Geographically targeted for performance and compliance

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Use Case: Developer Onboarding Automation

Imagine this script is embedded in your CI/CD or onboarding system:

1. A new developer joins the team.
2. The script provisions their resource environment.
3. The dev uploads, tests, or deploys safely in isolation.
4. When done, they clean up resources (bonus: add az group delete).

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Best Practices

• Use tags on resources for cost management:

  az tag create --name env --value dev

• Store access credentials in Azure Key Vault.
• Prefer RBAC over account keys for access control.
• Log all command outputs for auditing.

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Extend This Workflow

To scale this script into a real-world provisioning framework:

• Add container creation: az storage container create
• Upload starter files: az storage blob upload
• Use in GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps pipelines
• Parameterize for multiple regions and users

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Conclusion

This simple script is the foundation of infrastructure as code (IaC). With just two commands, you’ve moved from the Azure portal to a programmable, repeatable cloud automation workflow.

Stay curious, script often, and transform your cloud strategy one CLI command at a time.

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✍️ Written by: Cristian Sifuentes – Full-stack dev crafting scalable apps with [NET - Azure], [Angular - React], Git, SQL & extensions. Clean code, dark themes, atomic commits