Summary
This module introduced the new revision of ARM templates called Azure Bicep, which is designed to help developers have an enhanced authoring experience with its integration with Visual Studio Code and Azure CLI. You learned how it simplifies deployments, encourages reusability, requires less code, and is easy to write and deploy.
Module accomplishments
In this module, you accomplished the following:
- Understood what Bicep is: Learned about Bicep as a domain-specific language for Azure infrastructure as code.
- Installed and configured Bicep: Installed Bicep CLI and configured Visual Studio Code with the Bicep extension for an enhanced authoring experience.
- Learned Bicep syntax: Understood Bicep file structure including parameters, variables, resources, outputs, and modules.
- Created Bicep templates: Wrote Bicep files to define Azure resources with parameters, variables, and modules.
- Deployed locally: Deployed Bicep templates using Azure CLI and Cloud Shell.
- Deployed with Azure Pipelines: Integrated Bicep deployments into Azure Pipelines for continuous deployment.
- Deployed with GitHub Actions: Used GitHub Actions to automate Bicep template deployments.
- Understood ARM integration: Learned how Bicep transpiles to Azure Resource Manager templates.
Key benefits
Bicep provides several key benefits:
- Simpler syntax: Easier to read and write compared to JSON templates.
- Type safety: Validates templates at development time rather than runtime.
- Automatic dependency management: Infers resource dependencies automatically.
- Modularity: Encourages code reuse through modules.
- Tooling support: Excellent integration with Visual Studio Code and Azure CLI.