Microsoft Azure is a comprehensive cloud computing platform offering infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions across 70+ global regions. Azure enables organizations to build, deploy, and manage applications using Microsoft-managed data centers while providing pay-as-you-go pricing and automated scaling. A key mental model: Azure organizes resources hierarchically through management groups → subscriptions → resource groups → resources, with each level inheriting policies and access controls from above. Understanding this hierarchy is essential for effective governance and cost management.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers
This topic spans 20 focused tables and 124 indexed concepts, 125 flashcards, 6 practice tests with 197 questions. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.
A jump-to index of every table row in this cheat sheet.
An interactive map of every table and concept in this topic.
Table 1: Core Compute Services
Compute is where your code actually runs, and Azure spreads it across a spectrum: from full-control virtual machines down to event-driven functions where you never touch a server. The right pick comes down to how much of the stack you want to own versus hand off. VMs and Scale Sets keep you close to the OS, App Service and Container Apps trade that control for a managed platform, and Functions or Container Instances let you spin up just the work and pay only while it runs.
| Service | Example | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
az vm create --resource-group myRG --name myVM --image Ubuntu2204 | • On-demand Windows or Linux VMs with full OS control • size families target workloads: D general purpose, E memory optimized, F compute optimized • Stopped (Allocated) still bills compute; only deallocating releases the host | ||
az webapp create --resource-group myRG --plan myPlan --name myApp --runtime "node:20LTS" | • Fully managed PaaS for web apps, REST APIs, and mobile back ends • runs .NET, Java, Node.js, Python, PHP, or a custom container on Windows or Linux • the App Service plan is the unit of compute: every app in a plan shares its VM instances | ||
func init myFunctionApp --worker-runtime pythonfunc new --name HttpTrigger --template "HTTP trigger" | • Event-driven serverless compute with many trigger types • on the serverless plans (Flex Consumption is the current choice for new apps) instances are added per incoming event and can scale to zero • scaling to zero means cold starts; Premium and Flex offer always-ready instances | ||
az aks create --resource-group myRG --name myAKS --node-count 3 | • Managed Kubernetes: Azure runs the control plane (API server, etcd, scheduler) in both Automatic and Standard modes • you own the node pools that run your pods, including their OS patches and Kubernetes version | ||
az containerapp create --name myapp --resource-group myRG --environment myenv --image myacr.io/myapp:v1 | • Serverless containers on managed Kubernetes you never see, with KEDA autoscaling, revisions, and built-in ingress • no direct access to the Kubernetes API; use AKS when you need it | ||
az container create --resource-group myRG --name mycontainer --image nginx --cpu 1 --memory 1 | • Fastest way to run a container group without managing VMs, starting in seconds • per-second billing at the container group level • no orchestration: to run five, you create five | ||
az vmss create --resource-group myRG --name myScaleSet --image Ubuntu2204 --instance-count 5 | • Manage a group of load balanced VMs that scale on demand or a schedule • Flexible (recommended) manages standard VMs and allows mixed sizes, OSs, and Spot; Uniform deploys identical instances • the orchestration mode is fixed at creation | ||
az staticwebapp create --name myApp --resource-group myRG --source https://github.com/user/repo | • Globally distributed hosting for static front ends, with an integrated API from managed Azure Functions • automatic CI/CD from GitHub or Azure DevOps, free managed certificates, and built-in auth | ||
az batch pool create --id mypool --vm-size Standard_A1 --node-count 10 | • Run large-scale parallel and HPC jobs • creates and manages a pool of compute nodes, installs your app, and schedules tasks onto them • no extra charge for Batch; you pay for the VMs, storage, and networking |