What is Azure Resource Group?

Azure Resource Group is a powerful feature that enables effective organization and management of resources in the Azure cloud. A Resource Group is a logical container that allows you to group and manage multiple resources, such as virtual machines, storage accounts, databases, and web apps, all in one place. By using Resource Groups, you can easily manage and monitor your resources, and also maintain consistency across your application stack. Azure Resource Group is the third level in Azure’s four-level hierarchy for resource management.

Azure Resource Group Naming Convention

A consistent and well-defined naming standard for all resources in an Azure tenant is crucial to ensure easy identification, management, and organization of resources. It is recommended by Microsoft to use lowercase letters and hyphens to separate words in the name. Avoid using spaces, underscores, or special characters. Below is the example of proper naming convention. 

• Resource Type: It is advisable to use Microsoft recommended resource abbreviations to identify the resource type. For example, we can use the first two letters of the Resource Group “rg” to identify resource type for better management.

• Environment: Give the environment name. For Examples:

Environment	Abbreviations
Development	dev
Testing	test
User Acceptance Testing	uat
Staging	stg
Production	prd
Disaster Recovery	dr
Quality Assurance	qa
PreProduction	preprd
Integration	int
Sandbox	sbx

• Workload/Application: Include the name of the application in the Resource Group name. For Examples:

Application Name	Abbreviations
Atlassian Jira	jira
Microsoft Dynamics 365	d365
ServiceNow	snow
SAP ERP	sap
Workday	wday
NetSuite	ns
Zendesk	zd
Adobe Experience Manager	aem
Salesforce	sfdc
Oracle E-Business Suite	ebs

• Business Unit: Include the business unit identifier. For Example:

Business Unit	Abbreviations
Marketing	mkt
Sales	sal
Finance	fin
Human Resources	hr
Operations	ops
Research and Development	rnd
Customer Support	cs
Information Technology	it
Legal	leg
Procurement	proc

• Region: Include the Azure region as a short name. For example:

Region	Abbreviations
South East Asia	sea
East US	easus
East US 2	easus2
West US	wus
West US 2	wus2
Central US	ctrus
North Central US	nctrus
Canada Central	cndctr
Canada East	cndeas
Brazil South	brsou

• Subscription: If using multiple subscriptions, include the subscription name or abbreviation in the Resource Group name. For Example:

Subscription Name	Abbreviations
Azure Sponsorship	spn
Visual Studio Enterprise	vse

• Instance Count: The instance count for a specific resource, in case you need to have duplicate resource group. For example: 001 ,002…etc

Here is the example of resource group naming convention and syntax.

Create First Azure Resource Group

1. Sign into the Azure portal (https://portal.azure.com/).
2. Search for “resource group” in the Azure search bar or click on the “Resource groups” option in the left-hand navigation pane.
3. Click the “+ Create” button to create a new resource group.

• • On “Basics” tab: choose your subscription, resource group name, and region. A resource group name must be unique within the subscription and can contain up to 90 characters. The region selection will determine where your resource group will be created.
  • On Tags Tab: Key the tag name.
  • On “Review + create” tab: review the settings you’ve chosen for the resource group, if everything looks good, click the “Create” button to create the resource group.

4. After successfully creating the resource group, navigate to the resource group section and select the newly created resource group. From there, you can proceed to create new resources such as databases, applications, and more.

Renaming Azure Resource Group

Unfortunately, renaming an Azure Resource Group is not supported. However, if you need to rename a resource group, there is a workaround that involves moving the resources from the original resource group to a new one with the desired name.

It’s important to note that even though renaming an Azure Resource Group is not possible, you can still move the entire group to a new one if needed. Keep in mind that any resources within the new resource group will not be affected by this change. However, if you have scripts or automation that use the old resource group name, you will need to update them to reflect the new one after the move.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Azure Resource Groups are an essential tool for managing and organizing resources in the Azure cloud. By following a consistent naming convention, you can easily identify and manage your resources. Creating a Resource Group is a simple process, but renaming one is not supported, requiring a workaround to move resources to a new group with the desired name.

Best of luck with your learning journey!!