1. Interacting with the Azure environment
In this video, we'll discuss the ways you can interact with the Azure environment.
2. Main tools for interacting with Azure
There are five main tools for interacting with Azure: Azure Portal, PowerShell, Azure Command Line Interface, Azure Arc, and Azure Mobile.
Azure Portal is Azure's main graphical user interface. It is the main way most users will use to interact with Azure.
PowerShell and Azure Command Line Interface are both command line interface tools used by IT.
Azure Arc is used to connect to external resources.
And Azure Mobile is a mobile app used to manage and monitor resources on the go.
3. Azure Portal
Azure Portal is a graphical user interface designed to help manage the Azure resources. It acts as a web-based dashboard where you can view and access Azure's different services.
It can be used for building, developing, and monitoring cloud deployments and web apps, creating custom dashboards to organize and view resources, and configuring accessibility options.
Most users will use the Azure Portal to interact with Azure.
4. PowerShell
PowerShell is one of the command line tools of Azure, together with the Azure CLI. It is used to input text-based prompts to access and manage Azure resources. These commands can be used one-off or in a script to automate recurring tasks.
In this example, we use PowerShell to log in and output a list of all resources in table format.
This tool requires coding and technical knowledge and is generally used by the IT team.
5. Azure Command Line Interface (CLI)
The Command Line Interface is equivalent to the PowerShell tool but uses Bash as the syntax for the commands. Choosing between the PowerShell or Command Line Interface tool comes down to personal preference for using either PowerShell or Bash.
In this example, we use the CLI to do the same as in the PowerShell example: login and output a list of all resources in table format.
This tool is also used by IT.
6. Azure Arc
Azure Arc is a tool that allows you to connect to and manage resources outside of Azure as if they were an internal part of the Azure environment.
Examples of typical resources that can be connected through Azure Arc are SQL servers, Kubernetes servers, virtual machines, and on-premise servers. These are all used to store and run different computing resources.
Through Azure Arc, Azure can act as a single portal for hybrid cloud implementations, which are very common. A typical example is the combination of cloud services with on-premise servers.
This tool is typically used by the IT team.
7. Azure Mobile
You'll typically work with Azure behind a laptop or PC.
But for those cases where you want to stay up-to-date about Azure resources on the go, there is the Azure mobile app available for both Android and iOS.
However, you won't be able to do all Azure tasks with it. In its current version, it is only designed to manage and monitor the current state of your deployed resources.
8. Example use case: navigating with Azure Portal
Suppose you are new to Azure and still need to learn how to work with its different tools. For an upcoming project, you will mainly work with Azure Policy.
When you login to Azure, Azure Portal is your starting screen. From here, you can easily access any service.
Using the side-bar you can click through to the right service and add favorites for easy access.
You can also use the search function to find a specific service or functionality.
9. Let's practice!
Time to put your knowledge into practice!