Manage Resources with Azure CLI

You’ve provisioned resources through the portal and maybe automated a few scripts, but now you’re staring at a growing list of resource groups and wondering how to keep it all under control without clicking through endless blades. The Azure CLI is your command-line superpower: it turns every Azure management task into a fast, repeatable, scriptable operation. In this lesson, you’ll learn to manage resources with Azure CLI — from querying and tagging to scaling and cleaning up — so you can work smarter, not harder.

The problem this lesson solves

Azure’s portal is perfect for exploring, but it’s terrible for repeatable, predictable operations. Imagine you need to update 10 virtual machines with a new tag, or you want to check the status of every web app in your subscription. Doing that through the portal means dozens of clicks and a high chance of missing something. The pain is real: manual resource management leads to configuration drift, slow responses to incidents, and hours wasted on mundane tasks.

This lesson tackles that problem head-on. By the end, you’ll be able to manage resources with Azure CLI — a skill that lets you automate everything from tagging to scaling, and brings your cloud operations into the world of scripts, CI/CD, and Infrastructure as Code.

Core concept / mental model

Think of Azure CLI as a remote control for your Azure subscription. Instead of navigating the portal’s graphical interface, you send text commands — like a conversation with Azure. Each command targets a resource (a VM, a storage account, a web app) inside a resource group (a logical container).

The CLI is built on the Azure REST API, but it hides the complexity. You don’t need to understand HTTP requests; you just type az vm list or az group create. The CLI handles authentication, JSON formatting, and error checking.

A useful analogy: the portal is like using a GUI file manager, while the CLI is like using a terminal — both achieve the same goal, but the CLI is faster and scriptable. Here’s a simple diagram of the hierarchy you’ll be working with:

Subscription
  └── Resource Group
        ├── Virtual Network
        ├── Storage Account
        ├── Virtual Machine
        └── ... (any Azure resource)

Pro tip: Always organize resources by resource group — it makes management and cleanup far easier. Many Azure CLI commands operate at the resource group level, so a good grouping strategy saves you time.

How it works step by step

The core workflow for managing resources with Azure CLI follows a predictable pattern. Once you understand this, every management task becomes a variation on the same theme.

1. Authenticate – Ensure you are logged in with az login (or using a service principal for automation).
2. Set your subscription – If you have multiple subscriptions, set the active one with az account set --subscription <id>.
3. Identify the resource – Use the resource-group and name parameters to pinpoint the resource you need.
4. Execute the management operation – Whether it’s listing, tagging, scaling, or deleting, each task is a specific az <resource-type> <command>.
5. Verify the result – Use query parameters or --output table to confirm the change.

This pattern is reusable. For example, to tag every VM in a resource group, you’d loop over the list from az vm list and apply az vm update with the new tag. Cause and effect are direct: each command produces a JSON response that you can parse for automation.

Hands-on walkthrough

Let’s put the theory into practice. The hands-on example below will walk you through a typical scenario: listing, tagging, and scaling a virtual machine.

Step 1: Authenticate and set the subscription

First, log in and set your subscription (if needed):

az login

# List your subscriptions and copy the ID you want to use
az account list --output table

# Set the active subscription
az account set --subscription "Your-Subscription-ID"

Expected output for az login will open a browser window; after success, you’ll see a JSON array with your subscriptions. az account list --output table shows a table with your subscription names and IDs.

Step 2: List resources in a resource group

Now let’s see what you have in a specific resource group:

# List all resources in the group 'myResourceGroup'
az resource list --resource-group myResourceGroup --output table

Expected output (simplified):

Name          Type                  Location
------------  --------------------  ----------
myVM          Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines  eastus
myStorage     Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts   eastus

Step 3: Tag a resource

Tags help with cost tracking and organization. Let’s add a tag to the VM:

# Add a tag 'Environment=Production' to the VM
az resource tag --resource-group myResourceGroup \
                --name myVM \
                --tags Environment=Production

The command returns a JSON object with the updated tags. You can see the result with:

az resource show --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM --query tags

Expected output:

{
  "Environment": "Production"
}

Step 4: Scale a virtual machine

Scaling a VM’s size is a common management task. Use az vm resize:

az vm resize --resource-group myResourceGroup \
             --name myVM \
             --size Standard_DS2_v2

Expected output: a JSON object summarizing the VM’s new hardware profile, including the hardwareProfile.vmSize field. The command may take a few minutes to complete as it deallocates and reallocates the VM.

Step 5: Clean up (delete) a resource group

Finally, when you’re done, you can delete the whole resource group to avoid ongoing costs:

az group delete --name myResourceGroup --yes

This command will prompt for confirmation unless you pass --yes. It deletes all resources inside the group. Expected output is a long-running JSON status that ends with "provisioningState": "Succeeded".

Pro tip: Always use --yes in automation scripts to avoid interactive prompts. For safety, consider --no-wait to return immediately and let the deletion run in the background.

Compare options / when to choose what

Azure provides several ways to manage resources. The Azure CLI is not always the best fit. Here’s a quick comparison:

When to choose what: - Use Azure CLI for day-to-day management, scripting, and quick fixes. - Use Bicep when you need to deploy and manage entire environments reproducibly. - Use Azure Portal for quick visual checks or when explaining concepts to others. - Use REST API only when you need integration in a custom application.

Remember: The CLI is your friend for operational tasks; IaC tools are better for long‑term infrastructure definitions. Also, the CLI supports --output json, --output table, or --output yaml to suit your needs.

Troubleshooting & edge cases

Error: az: command not found

Cause: The Azure CLI is not installed. Fix: Install it per the official guide for your OS (e.g., brew install azure-cli on macOS, winget install Microsoft.AzureCLI on Windows, or the apt package on Ubuntu).

Error: Please run 'az login' to setup account.

Cause: You are not authenticated. Fix: Run az login and complete the interactive browser flow. If you are in a headless environment, use a service principal with az login --service-principal -u <appId> -p <password> --tenant <tenant>.

Error: (ResourceGroupNotFound) ResourceGroup 'myResourceGroup' could not be found.

Cause: The resource group does not exist in your current subscription. Fix: Check the name spelling and the active subscription (az account show). Use az group list --output table to see all groups.

Error: (Conflict) OperationNotAllowed

Cause: You’re trying to resize a VM that is not deallocated, or the VM’s current size doesn’t support the target size. Fix: First stop and deallocate the VM with az vm deallocate. Then resize. Also verify that the target size is available in your region (use az vm list-sizes --location <region>).

Edge case: Tags on large numbers of resources

If you have hundreds of VMs, applying tags one by one is slow. Use a loop in bash or PowerShell:

for id in $(az vm list --resource-group myResourceGroup --query "[].id" -o tsv); do
  az resource tag --id $id --tags Environment=Production
 done

This iterates over each VM ID and applies the tag. Always test on a small sample before running on a production environment.

Edge case: Output parsing

When scripting, you’ll often need a specific value (like a resource ID). Use --query with JMESPath to extract it:

vm_id=$(az vm show --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM --query id -o tsv)
echo "VM ID is: $vm_id"

What you learned & what's next

Congratulations! You now know how to manage resources with Azure CLI: authenticating, setting subscriptions, listing, tagging, scaling, and deleting resources. You also understand when to use the CLI versus other tools like Bicep or the portal.

You’ve achieved the core objectives: - Explain the core idea behind Manage resources with Azure CLI – It’s a scriptable remote control for your Azure resources. - Complete a practical exercise for Manage resources with Azure CLI – You tagged and resized a VM, and cleaned up a resource group.

Now you’re ready to take the next step in the Azure Tutorial track. The natural progression is to automate these CLI commands in CI/CD pipelines or to move towards Infrastructure as Code with Bicep. Master the CLI first — it’s a foundational skill for any Azure developer or DevOps engineer. Keep practicing, and soon you’ll manage entire environments from your terminal.