Description
Just as a blueprint allows an engineer or an architect to sketch a project’s design parameters, Azure Blueprints enables cloud architects and central information technology groups to define a repeatable set of Azure resources that implements and adheres to an organization’s standards, patterns, and requirements.
Azure Blueprints makes it possible for development teams to rapidly build and stand up new environments with trust they’re building within organizational compliance with a set of built-in components, such as networking, to speed up development and delivery.
Blueprints are a declarative way to orchestrate the deployment of various resource templates and other artifacts such as:
- Role Assignments
- Policy Assignments
- Azure Resource Manager templates (ARM templates)
- Resource Groups
The Azure Blueprints service is backed by the globally distributed Azure Cosmos DB. Blueprint objects are replicated to multiple Azure regions. This replication provides low latency, high availability, and consistent access to your blueprint objects, regardless of which region Azure Blueprints deploys your resources to.
Blueprint definition
A blueprint is composed of artifacts. Azure Blueprints currently supports the following resources as artifacts:
| Resource | Hierarchy options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Resource Groups | Subscription | Create a new resource group for use by other artifacts within the blueprint. These placeholder resource groups enable you to organize resources exactly the way you want them structured and provides a scope limiter for included policy and role assignment artifacts and ARM templates. |
| ARM template | Subscription, Resource Group | Templates, including nested and linked templates, are used to compose complex environments. Example environments: a SharePoint farm, Azure Automation State Configuration, or a Log Analytics workspace. |
| Policy Assignment | Subscription, Resource Group | Allows assignment of a policy or initiative to the subscription the blueprint is assigned to. The policy or initiative must be within the scope of the blueprint definition location. If the policy or initiative has parameters, these parameters are assigned at creation of the blueprint or during blueprint assignment. |
| Role Assignment | Subscription, Resource Group | Add an existing user or group to a built-in role to make sure the right people always have the right access to your resources. Role assignments can be defined for the entire subscription or nested to a specific resource group included in the blueprint. |