Bicep deployment what-if operation

Before deploying a Bicep file, you can preview the changes that will happen. Azure Resource Manager provides the what-if operation to let you see how resources will change if you deploy the Bicep file. The what-if operation doesn't make any changes to existing resources. Instead, it predicts the changes if the specified Bicep file is deployed.

You can use the what-if operation with Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, or REST API operations. What-if is supported for resource group, subscription, management group, and tenant level deployments.

During What-If operations, the evaluation and expansion of templateLink aren't supported. As a result, any resources deployed using template links within nested deployments, including template spec references, won't be visible in the What-If operation results.

Training resources

If you would rather learn about the what-if operation through step-by-step guidance, see Preview Azure deployment changes by using what-if.

Required permissions

To deploy a Bicep file or ARM template, you need write access on the resources you're deploying and access to all operations on the Microsoft.Resources/deployments resource type. For example, to deploy a virtual machine, you need Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/write and Microsoft.Resources/deployments/* permissions. The what-if operation has the same permission requirements.

For a list of roles and permissions, see Azure built-in roles.

What-if limits

What-if expands nested templates until these limits are reached:

• 500 nested templates.
• 800 resource groups in a cross resource-group deployment.
• 5 minutes taken for expanding the nested templates.

When one of the limits is reached, the remaining resources' change type is set to Ignore.

Install Azure PowerShell module

To use what-if in PowerShell, you must have version 4.2 or later of the Az module.

To install the module, use:

Install-Module -Name Az -Force

For more information about installing modules, see Install Azure PowerShell.

Install Azure CLI module

To use what-if in Azure CLI, you must have Azure CLI 2.14.0 or later. If needed, install the latest version of Azure CLI.

See results

When you use what-if in PowerShell or Azure CLI, the output includes color-coded results that help you see the different types of changes.

The text output is:

Resource and property changes are indicated with these symbols:
  - Delete
  + Create
  ~ Modify

The deployment will update the following scope:

Scope: /subscriptions/./resourceGroups/ExampleGroup

  ~ Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-001 [2018-10-01]
    - tags.Owner: "Team A"
    ~ properties.addressSpace.addressPrefixes: [
      - 0: "10.0.0.0/16"
      + 0: "10.0.0.0/15"
      ]
    ~ properties.subnets: [
      - 0:

          name:                     "subnet001"
          properties.addressPrefix: "10.0.0.0/24"

      ]

Resource changes: 1 to modify.

Note

The what-if operation can't resolve the reference function. Every time you set a property to a template expression that includes the reference function, what-if reports the property will change. This behavior happens because what-if compares the current value of the property (such as true or false for a boolean value) with the unresolved template expression. Obviously, these values will not match. When you deploy the Bicep file, the property will only change when the template expression resolves to a different value.

What-if commands

Azure PowerShell

To preview changes before deploying a Bicep file, use New-AzResourceGroupDeployment or New-AzSubscriptionDeployment. Add the -Whatif switch parameter to the deployment command.

• New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -Whatif for resource group deployments
• New-AzSubscriptionDeployment -Whatif and New-AzDeployment -Whatif for subscription level deployments

You can use the -Confirm switch parameter to preview the changes and get prompted to continue with the deployment.

• New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -Confirm for resource group deployments
• New-AzSubscriptionDeployment -Confirm and New-AzDeployment -Confirm for subscription level deployments

The preceding commands return a text summary that you can manually inspect. To get an object that you can programmatically inspect for changes, use Get-AzResourceGroupDeploymentWhatIfResult or Get-AzSubscriptionDeploymentWhatIfResult.

• $results = Get-AzResourceGroupDeploymentWhatIfResult for resource group deployments
• $results = Get-AzSubscriptionDeploymentWhatIfResult or $results = Get-AzDeploymentWhatIfResult for subscription level deployments

Azure CLI

To preview changes before deploying a Bicep file, use:

• az deployment group what-if for resource group deployments
• az deployment sub what-if for subscription level deployments
• az deployment mg what-if for management group deployments
• az deployment tenant what-if for tenant deployments

You can use the --confirm-with-what-if switch (or its short form -c) to preview the changes and get prompted to continue with the deployment. Add this switch to:

• az deployment group create
• az deployment sub create.
• az deployment mg create
• az deployment tenant create

For example, use az deployment group create --confirm-with-what-if or -c for resource group deployments.

The preceding commands return a text summary that you can manually inspect. To get a JSON object that you can programmatically inspect for changes, use the --no-pretty-print switch. For example, use az deployment group what-if --no-pretty-print for resource group deployments.

If you want to return the results without colors, open your Azure CLI configuration file. Set no_color to yes.

Azure REST API

For REST API, use:

• Deployments - What If for resource group deployments
• Deployments - What If At Subscription Scope for subscription deployments
• Deployments - What If At Management Group Scope for management group deployments
• Deployments - What If At Tenant Scope for tenant deployments.

Change types

The what-if operation lists seven different types of changes:

• Create: The resource doesn't currently exist but is defined in the Bicep file. The resource will be created.
• Delete: This change type only applies when using complete mode for JSON template deployment. The resource exists, but isn't defined in the Bicep file. With complete mode, the resource will be deleted. Only resources that support complete mode deletion are included in this change type.
• Ignore: The resource exists, but isn't defined in the Bicep file. The resource won't be deployed or modified. When you reach the limits for expanding nested templates, you'll encounter this change type. See What-if limits.
• NoChange: The resource exists, and is defined in the Bicep file. The resource will be redeployed, but the properties of the resource won't change. This change type is returned when ResultFormat is set to FullResourcePayloads, which is the default value.
• NoEffect: The property is ready-only and will be ignored by the service. For example, the sku.tier property is always set to match sku.name in the Microsoft.ServiceBus namespace.
• Modify: The resource exists, and is defined in the Bicep file. The resource will be redeployed, and the properties of the resource will change. This change type is returned when ResultFormat is set to FullResourcePayloads, which is the default value.
• Deploy: The resource exists, and is defined in the Bicep file. The resource will be redeployed. The properties of the resource may or may not change. The operation returns this change type when it doesn't have enough information to determine if any properties will change. You only see this condition when ResultFormat is set to ResourceIdOnly.

Result format

You control the level of detail that is returned about the predicted changes. You have two options:

• FullResourcePayloads - returns a list of resources that will change and details about the properties that will change
• ResourceIdOnly - returns a list of resources that will change

The default value is FullResourcePayloads.

For PowerShell deployment commands, use the -WhatIfResultFormat parameter. In the programmatic object commands, use the ResultFormat parameter.

For Azure CLI, use the --result-format parameter.

The following results show the two different output formats:

• Full resource payloads

  Resource and property changes are indicated with these symbols:
    - Delete
    + Create
    ~ Modify
  
  The deployment will update the following scope:
  
  Scope: /subscriptions/./resourceGroups/ExampleGroup
  
    ~ Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-001 [2018-10-01]
      - tags.Owner: "Team A"
      ~ properties.addressSpace.addressPrefixes: [
        - 0: "10.0.0.0/16"
        + 0: "10.0.0.0/15"
        ]
      ~ properties.subnets: [
        - 0:
  
          name:                     "subnet001"
          properties.addressPrefix: "10.0.0.0/24"
  
        ]
  
  Resource changes: 1 to modify.
  

• Resource ID only

  Resource and property changes are indicated with this symbol:
    ! Deploy
  
  The deployment will update the following scope:
  
  Scope: /subscriptions/./resourceGroups/ExampleGroup
  
    ! Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-001
  
  Resource changes: 1 to deploy.
  

Run what-if operation

Set up environment

To see how what-if works, let's runs some tests. First, deploy a Bicep file that creates a virtual network. You'll use this virtual network to test how changes are reported by what-if. Download a copy of the Bicep file.

resource vnet 'Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks@2023-11-01' = {
  name: 'vnet-001'
  location: resourceGroup().location
  tags: {
    CostCenter: '12345'
    Owner: 'Team A'
  }
  properties: {
    addressSpace: {
      addressPrefixes: [
        '10.0.0.0/16'
      ]
    }
    enableVmProtection: false
    enableDdosProtection: false
    subnets: [
      {
        name: 'subnet001'
        properties: {
          addressPrefix: '10.0.0.0/24'
        }
      }
      {
        name: 'subnet002'
        properties: {
          addressPrefix: '10.0.1.0/24'
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

To deploy the Bicep file, use:

PowerShell

New-AzResourceGroup `
  -Name ExampleGroup `
  -Location centralus
New-AzResourceGroupDeployment `
  -ResourceGroupName ExampleGroup `
  -TemplateFile "what-if-before.bicep"

Azure CLI

az group create \
  --name ExampleGroup \
  --location "Central US"
az deployment group create \
  --resource-group ExampleGroup \
  --template-file "what-if-before.bicep"

Test modification

After the deployment completes, you're ready to test the what-if operation. This time you deploy a Bicep file that changes the virtual network. It's missing one of the original tags, a subnet has been removed, and the address prefix has changed. Download a copy of the Bicep file.

resource vnet 'Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks@2023-11-01' = {
  name: 'vnet-001'
  location: resourceGroup().location
  tags: {
    CostCenter: '12345'
  }
  properties: {
    addressSpace: {
      addressPrefixes: [
        '10.0.0.0/15'
      ]
    }
    enableVmProtection: false
    enableDdosProtection: false
    subnets: [
      {
        name: 'subnet002'
        properties: {
          addressPrefix: '10.0.1.0/24'
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

To view the changes, use:

PowerShell

New-AzResourceGroupDeployment `
  -Whatif `
  -ResourceGroupName ExampleGroup `
  -TemplateFile "what-if-after.bicep"

Azure CLI

az deployment group what-if \
  --resource-group ExampleGroup \
  --template-file "what-if-after.bicep"

The what-if output appears similar to:

The text output is:

Resource and property changes are indicated with these symbols:
  - Delete
  + Create
  ~ Modify

The deployment will update the following scope:

Scope: /subscriptions/./resourceGroups/ExampleGroup

  ~ Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-001 [2018-10-01]
    - tags.Owner:                    "Team A"
    + properties.enableVmProtection: false
    ~ properties.addressSpace.addressPrefixes: [
      - 0: "10.0.0.0/16"
      + 0: "10.0.0.0/15"
      ]
    ~ properties.subnets: [
      - 0:

          name:                     "subnet001"
          properties.addressPrefix: "10.0.0.0/24"

      ]

Resource changes: 1 to modify.

Notice at the top of the output that colors are defined to indicate the type of changes.

At the bottom of the output, it shows the tag Owner was deleted. The address prefix changed from 10.0.0.0/16 to 10.0.0.0/15. The subnet named subnet001 was deleted. Remember these changes weren't deployed. You see a preview of the changes that will happen if you deploy the Bicep file.

Some of the properties that are listed as deleted won't actually change. Properties can be incorrectly reported as deleted when they aren't in the Bicep file, but are automatically set during deployment as default values. This result is considered "noise" in the what-if response. The final deployed resource will have the values set for the properties. As the what-if operation matures, these properties will be filtered out of the result.

Programmatically evaluate what-if results

Now, let's programmatically evaluate the what-if results by setting the command to a variable.

PowerShell

$results = Get-AzResourceGroupDeploymentWhatIfResult `
  -ResourceGroupName ExampleGroup `
  --template-file "what-if-after.bicep"

You can see a summary of each change.

foreach ($change in $results.Changes)
{
  $change.Delta
}

Azure CLI

results=$(az deployment group what-if --resource-group ExampleGroup --template-file "what-if-after.bicep" --no-pretty-print)

Confirm deletion

To preview changes before deploying a Bicep file, use the confirm switch parameter with the deployment command. If the changes are as you expected, respond that you want the deployment to complete.

PowerShell

New-AzResourceGroupDeployment `
  -ResourceGroupName ExampleGroup `
  -Confirm `
  -TemplateFile "what-if-after.bicep"

Azure CLI

az deployment group create \
  --resource-group ExampleGroup \
  --confirm-with-what-if \
  --template-file "what-if-after.bicep"

The text output is:

Resource and property changes are indicated with these symbols:
  - Delete
  + Create
  ~ Modify

The deployment will update the following scope:

Scope: /subscriptions/./resourceGroups/ExampleGroup

  ~ Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-001 [2018-10-01]
    - tags.Owner:                    "Team A"
    + properties.enableVmProtection: false
    ~ properties.addressSpace.addressPrefixes: [
      - 0: "10.0.0.0/16"
      + 0: "10.0.0.0/15"
      ]
    ~ properties.subnets: [
      - 0:

          name:                     "subnet001"
          properties.addressPrefix: "10.0.0.0/24"

      ]

Resource changes: 1 to modify.

Are you sure you want to execute the deployment?
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"):

You see the expected changes and can confirm that you want the deployment to run.

Clean up resources

When you no longer need the example resources, use Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell to delete the resource group.

CLI

az group delete --name ExampleGroup

PowerShell

Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name ExampleGroup

SDKs

You can use the what-if operation through the Azure SDKs.

• For Python, use what-if.

• For Java, use DeploymentWhatIf Class.

• For .NET, use DeploymentWhatIf Class.

Next steps

• To use the what-if operation in a pipeline, see Test ARM templates with What-If in a pipeline.
• If you notice incorrect results from the what-if operation, report the issues at https://aka.ms/whatifissues.
• For a Learn module that demonstrates using what-if, see Preview changes and validate Azure resources by using what-if and the ARM template test toolkit.