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Quickstart: Run your first Resource Graph query using Azure Resource Graph Explorer

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The power of Azure Resource Graph is available directly in the Azure portal through Azure Resource Graph Explorer. Resource Graph Explorer provides browsable information about the Azure Resource Manager resource types and properties that you can query. Resource Graph Explorer also provides a clean interface for working with multiple queries, evaluating the results, and even converting the results of some queries into a chart that can be pinned to an Azure dashboard.

At the end of this quickstart, you'll have used Azure portal and Resource Graph Explorer to run your first Resource Graph query and pinned the results to a dashboard.

Prerequisites

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Run your first Resource Graph query

Open the Azure portal to find and use the Resource Graph Explorer following these steps to run your first Resource Graph query:

  1. Select All services in the left pane. Search for and select Resource Graph Explorer.

  2. In the Query 1 portion of the window, enter the query Resources | project name, type | limit 5 and select Run query.

    Note

    As this query example doesn't provide a sort modifier such as order by, running this query multiple times is likely to yield a different set of resources per request.

  3. Review the query response in the Results tab. Select the Messages tab to see details about the query, including the count of results and duration of the query. Errors, if any, are displayed under this tab.

  4. Update the query to order by the Name property: Resources | project name, type | limit 5 | order by name asc. Then, select Run query.

    Note

    Just as with the first query, running this query multiple times is likely to yield a different set of resources per request. The order of the query commands is important. In this example, the order by comes after the limit. This command order first limits the query results and then orders them.

  5. Update the query to first order by the Name property and then limit to the top five results: Resources | project name, type | order by name asc | limit 5. Then, select Run query.

When the final query is run several times, assuming that nothing in your environment is changing, the results returned are consistent and ordered by the Name property, but still limited to the top five results.

Schema browser

The schema browser is located in the left pane of Resource Graph Explorer. This list of resources shows all the resource types of Azure resources that are both supported by Azure Resource Graph and that exist in a tenant that you have access to. Expanding a resource type or subproperties show child properties that can be used to create a Resource Graph query.

Selecting the resource type places where type =="<resource type>" into the query box. Selecting one of the child properties adds where <propertyName> == "INSERT_VALUE_HERE" into the query box. The schema browser is a great way to discover properties for use in queries. Be sure to replace INSERT_VALUE_HERE with your own value, adjust the query with conditions, operators, and functions to achieve your intended results.

Download query results as a CSV file

To download CSV results from the Azure portal, browse to the Azure Resource Graph Explorer and run a query. On the toolbar, click Download as CSV as shown in the following screenshot:

Screenshot of Azure Resource Graph Explorer in Azure portal with Download as CSV button highlighted.

Note

When using the comma-separated value (CSV) export functionality of Azure Resource Graph Explorer, the result set is limited to 55,000 records. This is a platform limit that cannot be overridden by filing an Azure support ticket.

Create a chart from the Resource Graph query

After running the previous query, if you select the Charts tab, you get a message that "the result set isn't compatible with a pie chart visualization." Queries that list results can't be made into a chart, but queries that provide counts of resources can. Using the Sample query - Count virtual machines by OS type, let's create a visualization from the Resource Graph query.

  1. In the Query 1 portion of the window, enter the following query and select Run query.

    Resources
| where type =~ 'Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines'
| summarize count() by tostring(properties.storageProfile.osDisk.osType)

  2. Select the Results tab and note that the response for this query provides counts.

  3. Select the Charts tab. Now, the query results in visualizations. Change the type from Select chart type... to either Bar chart or Donut chart to experiment with the available visualization options.

Pin the query visualization to a dashboard

When you have results from a query that can be visualized, that data visualization can then be pinned to one of your dashboards. After running the previous query, follow these steps:

  1. Select Save and provide the name "VMs by OS Type". Then select Save at the bottom of the right pane.

  2. Select Run query to rerun the query now that it's been saved.

  3. On the Charts tab, select a data visualization. Then select Pin to dashboard.

  4. Either select the portal notification that appears or select Dashboard from the left pane.

The query is now available on your dashboard with the title of the tile matching the query name. If the query was unsaved when it was pinned, it's named 'Query 1' instead.

The query and resulting data visualization run and update each time the dashboard loads, providing real-time and dynamic insights to your Azure environment directly in your workflow.

Note

Queries that result in a list can also be pinned to the dashboard. The feature isn't limited to data visualizations of queries.

Import example Resource Graph Explorer dashboards

To provide examples of Resource Graph queries and how Resource Graph Explorer can be used to enhance your Azure portal workflow, try out these example dashboards.

Note

Counts and charts in the above example dashboard screenshots vary depending on your Azure environment.

  1. Select and download the sample dashboard you want to evaluate.

  2. In the Azure portal, select Dashboard from the left pane.

  3. Select Upload, then locate and select the downloaded sample dashboard file. Then select Open.

The imported dashboard is automatically displayed. Since it now exists in your Azure portal, you may explore and make changes as needed or create new dashboards from the example to share with your teams. For more information about working with dashboards, see Create and share dashboards in the Azure portal.

Clean up resources

If you wish to remove the sample Resource Graph dashboards from your Azure portal environment, you can do so with the following steps:

  1. Select Dashboard from the left pane.

  2. From the dashboard dropdown list, select the sample Resource Graph dashboard you wish to delete.

  3. Select Delete from the dashboard menu at the top of the dashboard and select Ok to confirm.

Next steps

In this quickstart, you've used Azure Resource Graph Explorer to run your first query and looked at dashboard examples powered by Resource Graph. To learn more about the Resource Graph language, continue to the query language details page.

Get more information about the query language