If you’re like me you prefer to automate things as much as possible. In some instances that means using desired state configuration, in other instances it’s launching a series of PowerShell scripts. This saves time and helps to ensure a configuration that’s repeatable and easy to kick off without a ton of work – yes there are parameters that occasionally you have to set (e.g., passwords, IP addresses, etc.).
Enter into the mix that this helps to an extent. Then you start looking at Azure and the Resource Management templates and you realize that you can automate a good chunk of these operations… of course this means that you go out and quickly learn JSON so that you’re able to create your own.
Newsflash – there are quick start templates that Microsoft already has out there for you to use. That’s right, community driven and for the most part Microsoft supported. Where do you find them you might ask? Well if you use a search engine of your choice (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go) you’ll probably find them rather quickly, but for your convenience they’re also here – https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/templates/
The templates can be launched directly from the template pages into an Azure subscription or if you find that you want to use these as a starting point, you can open the GitHub repo that’s associated with the templates, fork it and modify it to your hearts desire.
Bottom line? Don’t ignore these resources. You’ll occasionally run into a bug when a template references an older version of an Azure disk image, but to get around that just identify the issue and put in a pull request for the group that maintains that particular QuickStart template to update it.
The Tech Blog of Dan Usher 