“Unlock the Power of Bicep: Automatically Deploy a Standard Azure IaaS Model (Part 1 of 3)”

Utilizing Bicep: Automatically Deploy Standard Azure IaaS Model (1 of 3)
Introduction
As a cloud architect, the ability to rapidly and consistently deploy infrastructure is key. To achieve this, Azure offers a number of options, including ARM templates, Azure Resource Manager (ARM) cmdlets, and the new, open source language Bicep. In this blog post, we will explore how to use Bicep to automatically deploy a standard Azure IaaS model.

What is Bicep?
Bicep is an open-source language for describing Azure infrastructure that is optimized for readability and maintainability. Bicep provides a simplified approach to declare Azure resources, reducing the amount of code needed to deploy the same resources as an ARM template. Bicep also enables you to reuse components and parameters across ARM templates, making it easier to create and maintain complex deployments.

Benefits of Using Bicep
Bicep provides a number of benefits to cloud architects, including:

* Reduced complexity: Bicep simplifies the process of deploying complex Azure IaaS models by reducing the amount of code needed to define resources.
* Reusability: Bicep provides the ability to easily reuse components and parameters across ARM templates, making it easier to create and maintain complex deployments.
* Readability: Bicep is optimized for readability, making it easier to understand the code and make changes to it.

Getting Started with Bicep
To get started with Bicep, you will need to install the Azure CLI and Bicep CLI. Once these are installed, you can create a new Bicep file by running the command “bicep init”. You can then open the Bicep file in your favorite text editor and start writing your Bicep code.

Deploying a Standard Azure IaaS Model
Now that we have a basic understanding of Bicep, let’s take a look at how to use it to deploy a standard Azure IaaS model. To do this, we will need to define a resource group, virtual network, subnet, and a virtual machine.

Defining the Resource Group
The first step is to define the resource group. To do this, we will need to create a new Bicep file and add the following code:

resource group rg {
name: ‘my-rg’
}

Defining the Virtual Network
The next step is to define the virtual network. To do this, we will need to add the following code to our Bicep file:

resource vnet vnet {
name: ‘my-vnet’
address-space: [ ‘10.0.0.0/16’ ]
resource-group: rg
}

Defining the Subnets
Next, we will need to define the subnets. To do this, we will need to add the following code to our Bicep file:

resource subnet subnet1 {
name: ‘my-subnet1’
address-prefix: ‘10.0.1.0/24’
virtual-network: vnet
}

resource subnet subnet2 {
name: ‘my-subnet2’
address-prefix: ‘10.0.2.0/24’
virtual-network: vnet
}

Defining the Virtual Machine
Finally, we will need to define the virtual machine. To do this, we will need to add the following code to our Bicep file:

resource vm vm {
name: ‘my-vm’
resource-group: rg
location: rg.location
size: ‘Standard_A1_v2’
subnet: subnet1
os-disk: {
caching: ReadWrite
create-option: FromImage
}
image-reference: {
publisher: ‘Canonical’
offer: ‘UbuntuServer’
sku: ‘18.04-LTS’
version: ‘latest’
}
}

Deploying the Bicep File
Now that we have our Bicep file, we can deploy it. To do this, we will need to use the Bicep CLI command “bicep deploy”. This command will deploy our Bicep file to Azure and create the resource group, virtual network, subnets, and virtual machine.

Conclusion
In this blog post, we explored how to use Bicep to automatically deploy a standard Azure IaaS model. We looked at the benefits of using Bicep and how to get started with it. We then deployed a Bicep file that created a resource group, virtual network, subnets, and virtual machine. Bicep is an exciting new language that provides a simplified approach to declaring Azure resources, making it easier to deploy complex IaaS models.
References:
Utilizing Bicep: Automatically deploy standard Azure IaaS model (1 of 3)
1. Azure IaaS
2. Utilizing Bicep
3.