Azure Resource Manager templates (ARM) are a great way to automate the deployment of resources in Azure. They provide an easy-to-use interface that allows you to deploy your resources with just a few clicks. This blog post discusses 3 reasons why you should use ARM templates for your deployment needs.
ARM templates are easy to use. Azure ARM allows you to configure your Azure resources in a single text file that is easily readable and editable by humans. Azure ARM templates are Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates. You can use Azure PowerShell to deploy your resources, Azure CLI to deploy your resources and Azure portal to deploy your resources.
Risk
ARM templates reduce the risk of deployment errors. Deploying complex infrastructure manually introduces a lot of room for human error. When you’re deploying hundreds or even thousands of servers, deploying resources manually can introduce a lot of errors that could result in Azure billing you for more than what you intend to pay.
Consistent
ARM templates guarantee consistency and maintainability. When creating ARM templates, it is important to ensure the template is easily readable and useable by other developers on your team or even Azure engineers who will deploy your infrastructure into Azure. Azure ARM templates should use a clear naming convention, have meaningful comments and be able to stand on their own as readable documentation of your Azure environment.
Azure ARM templates should also include Azure best practices and establish conventions that will avoid any issues with Azure Resource Manager.
ARM templates make it easy to reuse the same template for different purposes such as deploying Azure infrastructure, building out DevOps CI/CD pipelines or migrating Azure resources from one subscription to another.
Time
ARM templates reduce the time it takes for other engineers to deploy resources into Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Once you have created an Azure Resource Manager template that creates all Azure resources you need for your application, other Azure engineers can deploy them with a single click. This will save you time and effort in creating Azure infrastructure manually one resource at a time which takes up valuable engineering hours that could be spent on building new features into the product or service.
To learn how to deploy an Azure Virtual Machine to Microsoft Azure visit this blog post.