🔧 Azure Account Setup

Introduction

Azure account setup is the foundation for using Microsoft Azure cloud services. It involves creating an account, managing subscriptions, configuring billing, and setting up role-based access control (RBAC).

Key Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you'll understand:

• Creating and managing Azure accounts

• Understanding subscriptions and resource groups

• Setting up billing and cost tracking

• Configuring role-based access control (RBAC)

• Using Azure CLI and PowerShell

• Managing multiple subscriptions

• Setting up alerts and budgets

Creating an Azure Account

Step 1: Sign Up

# Visit Azure portal
# https://portal.azure.com

# Create free account
# $200 credit for 30 days
# Always-free services

Step 2: Install Azure CLI

# macOS
brew install azure-cli

# Linux
curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash

# Windows
choco install azure-cli

Step 3: Login to Azure

# Interactive login
az login

# Specify subscription
az login --subscription "subscription-id"

# Check current account
az account show

Understanding Subscriptions and Resource Groups

Create Resource Group

# Create resource group
az group create \
  --name myResourceGroup \
  --location eastus

# List resource groups
az group list

# Get specific group
az group show --name myResourceGroup

Manage Subscriptions

# List subscriptions
az account list

# Set default subscription
az account set --subscription "subscription-id"

# Get subscription details
az account show

Setting Up Billing

Create Budget Alerts

# Set spending limit
az consumption budget create \
  --budget-name "monthly-budget" \
  --amount 1000 \
  --time-grain monthly \
  --category cost

View Cost Management

# View current costs
az consumption usage list --start-date 2024-01-01 --end-date 2024-01-31

# List billing periods
az billing period list

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Create Service Principal

# Create service principal
az ad sp create-for-rbac \
  --name "myServicePrincipal" \
  --role Contributor \
  --scopes /subscriptions/{subscription-id}

# Output: appId, password, tenant

Assign Roles

# Assign role to user
az role assignment create \
  --role "Contributor" \
  --assignee user@example.com \
  --scope /subscriptions/{subscription-id}

# Assign role to service principal
az role assignment create \
  --role "Reader" \
  --assignee {app-id} \
  --scope /subscriptions/{subscription-id}/resourceGroups/myResourceGroup

View Role Assignments

# List role assignments
az role assignment list \
  --scope /subscriptions/{subscription-id}

# Check specific assignment
az role assignment list \
  --assignee user@example.com

Key Takeaways

• **Azure subscriptions** organize resources and billing

• **Resource groups** logically group related resources

• **RBAC** controls who can access what

• **Service principals** authenticate applications

• **Cost management** tracks spending and sets budgets

• **Multiple subscriptions** separate environments and billing

Next Steps

Learn about Azure Compute services, or explore resource management with Infrastructure as Code (IaC).