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Begin your Azure CLI journey

Welcome to the Azure CLI. We're glad you're here! You chose a tool that allows you to create, update, and delete Azure resources from a command-line. In this tutorial, you'll onboard with the Azure CLI and learn the following skills that help you to be successful in your Azure CLI journey:

What is the Azure CLI?

The Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) is a cross-platform command-line tool to connect to Azure and execute administrative commands on Azure resources. It allows the execution of commands through a terminal using interactive command-line prompts or a script.

For interactive use, first launch a shell such as Bash, PowerShell, or Cmd.exe on Windows, Linux or macOS. Then issue a command at the shell prompt. To automate repetitive tasks, assemble the Azure CLI commands into a shell script using the script syntax of your chosen shell, and then execute the script.

What shell environment should I use?

Windows PowerShell, PowerShell, Cmd, and Bash are different shell environments. Your shell environment not only determines which tools you can use, but your shell also changes your command-line experience. For example, there are important quoting differences, line continuation characters, and variable syntax differences between shells.

The Azure CLI reference examples in this tutorial are written for Bash, PowerShell and Cmd to help you evaluate each shell experience. Here's a brief comparison:

Shell environment Can I use Azure CLI? Can I use Azure PowerShell?
CMD Yes
Bash Yes
Windows PowerShell Yes Yes
PowerShell Yes Yes

Azure Cloud Shell is a hosted shell environment that runs on an Ubuntu container. Cloud Shell provides two shell environments: Bash (with Azure CLI preinstalled) and PowerShell (with Azure PowerShell preinstalled).

How does the Azure CLI compare to Azure PowerShell?

Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell are both command-line tools that enable you to create and manage Azure resources, but they're distinctly different. Here's a brief comparison of the two tools:

Compare Azure CLI Azure PowerShell
What is it? Cross-platform command-line interface Cross-platform PowerShell module
Built on Python PowerShell
Install on Windows, macOS, Linux Windows, macOS, Linux
Run in Bash shell, PowerShell 5 or 7, Windows Cmd.exe, Azure Cloud Shell, Docker container, and other Unix shells. Windows PowerShell, PowerShell, Azure Cloud Shell, Docker container
Terms Reference groups, reference subgroups and reference commands Modules, cmdlets and aliases
Syntax example az storage account create New-AzStorageAccount
Learn more What is Azure CLI? What is Azure PowerShell?
Release notes Azure CLI release notes Azure PowerShell release notes

What are Azure CLI command components?

All Azure CLI reference commands are one of two reference types:

  • Core components of the Azure CLI are part of the primary Azure CLI service and ship from Microsoft on a release schedule.
  • Extensions aren't shipped as part of the core Azure CLI but they run as CLI commands. With extensions, you gain access to experimental and prerelease commands along with the ability to write your own CLI interfaces. You're prompted to install an extension on first use.

The Azure CLI syntax has four parts. For example, this is how az storage account local-user create breaks down into syntax parts:

Term Example
Reference group az storage
Space-delimited reference subgroups az storage account local-user
Reference command az storage account local-user create
Reference command parameters az storage account local-user create --name, --account-name, --resource-group

Get more details

Do you want more detail on one of the subjects covered in this tutorial step? Use the links in this table to learn more.

Subject Learn more
Environments Choose the right Azure command-line tool
Terms Azure CLI terms and status
Extensions Use and manage extensions with the Azure CLI

Next Step

Now that you've learned about shell environments and Azure CLI syntax, proceed to the next step to prepare your environment and execute your first Azure CLI reference command.