Ansible - Azure Resource Manager Example

April 27, 2020 Updated Dec 18, 2025 - Thomas Jungbauer - 4 min read (727 words)

This article was written April 2020. Product versions, commands and screenshots may have changed since then. Please verify against the current documentation.

Using Ansible Resource Manager with an ARM template and a simple Ansible playbook to deploy a Virtual Machine with Disk, virtual network, public IP and so on.

Introduction

Source: [1]

In order to deploy a Virtual Machine and all depended resources using the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template with Ansible, you will need three things:

The ARM Template
The parameters you want to use
The Ansible playbook

All can be found below. Store them and simply call:

ansible-playbook Azure/create_azure_deployment.yml

it will take several minutes, until everything has been deployment in Azure.

Instead of using a json file locally you can upload the template file (as well as a parameters file) to a version control system and use it from there.

Additional Resources

Ansible Playbook: Create-Azure-Deplyoment.yml

---
- name: Get facts of a VM
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  become: false
  gather_facts: false

  tasks:

  #- name: Destroy Azure Deploy
  #  azure_rm_deployment:
  #    resource_group: tju-ResourceGroup
  #    name: tju-testDeployment
  #    state: absent

  - name: Create Azure Resource Group deployment
    azure_rm_deployment:
      state: present
      resource_group_name: tju-ResourceGroup
      name: tju-testDeployment
      #template_link: '<YOUR RAW Github template file>'
      #parameters_link: '<YOUR RAW Github parameters file>'
      template: "{{ lookup('file', 'ResourceManagerTemplate.json') }}"
      parameters:
        projectName:
          value: tjuProject
        location:
          value: "East US"
        adminUsername:
          value: tjungbauer
        adminPublicKey:
          value: "{{ lookup('file', '/Users/tjungbauer/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"
        operatingSystem:
          value: CentOS
        operatingSystemPublisher:
          value: OpenLogic
        operatingSystemSKU:
          value: '7.1'
        vmSize:
          value: Standard_D2s_v3
    register: azure

  - name: Add new instance to host group
    add_host:
      hostname: "{{ item['ips'][0].public_ip }}"
      groupname: azure_vms
    loop: "{{ azure.deployment.instances }}"

ResourceManagerTemplate.json

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "projectName": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies a name for generating resource names."
      }
    },
    "location": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "[resourceGroup().location]",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the location for all resources."
      }
    },
    "adminUsername": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies a username for the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },
    "adminPublicKey": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the SSH rsa public key file as a string. Use \"ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048\" to generate your SSH key pairs."
      }
    },
    "operatingSystem": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the Operating System. i.e. CentOS"
      }
    },
    "operatingSystemPublisher": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the publisher. i.e. OpenLogic"
      }
    },
    "operatingSystemSKU": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the version of the OS. i.e. 7.1"
      }
    },
    "vmSize": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the the VM size. i.e. Standard_D2s_v3"
      }
    }
  },
  "variables": {
    "vNetName": "[concat(parameters('projectName'), '-vnet')]",
    "vNetAddressPrefixes": "10.0.0.0/16",
    "vNetSubnetName": "default",
    "vNetSubnetAddressPrefix": "10.0.0.0/24",
    "vmName": "[concat(parameters('projectName'), '-vm')]",
    "publicIPAddressName": "[concat(parameters('projectName'), '-ip')]",
    "networkInterfaceName": "[concat(parameters('projectName'), '-nic')]",
    "networkSecurityGroupName": "[concat(parameters('projectName'), '-nsg')]",
    "networkSecurityGroupName2": "[concat(variables('vNetSubnetName'), '-nsg')]"
  },
  "resources": [
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups",
      "apiVersion": "2018-11-01",
      "name": "[variables('networkSecurityGroupName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "properties": {
        "securityRules": [
          {
            "name": "ssh_rule",
            "properties": {
              "description": "Locks inbound down to ssh default port 22.",
              "protocol": "Tcp",
              "sourcePortRange": "*",
              "destinationPortRange": "22",
              "sourceAddressPrefix": "*",
              "destinationAddressPrefix": "*",
              "access": "Allow",
              "priority": 123,
              "direction": "Inbound"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses",
      "apiVersion": "2018-11-01",
      "name": "[variables('publicIPAddressName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "properties": {
        "publicIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic"
      },
      "sku": {
        "name": "Basic"
      }
    },
    {
      "comments": "Simple Network Security Group for subnet [variables('vNetSubnetName')]",
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups",
      "apiVersion": "2019-08-01",
      "name": "[variables('networkSecurityGroupName2')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "properties": {
        "securityRules": [
          {
            "name": "default-allow-22",
            "properties": {
              "priority": 1000,
              "access": "Allow",
              "direction": "Inbound",
              "destinationPortRange": "22",
              "protocol": "Tcp",
              "sourceAddressPrefix": "*",
              "sourcePortRange": "*",
              "destinationAddressPrefix": "*"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks",
      "apiVersion": "2018-11-01",
      "name": "[variables('vNetName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups', variables('networkSecurityGroupName2'))]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "addressSpace": {
          "addressPrefixes": [
            "[variables('vNetAddressPrefixes')]"
          ]
        },
        "subnets": [
          {
            "name": "[variables('vNetSubnetName')]",
            "properties": {
              "addressPrefix": "[variables('vNetSubnetAddressPrefix')]",
              "networkSecurityGroup": {
                "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups', variables('networkSecurityGroupName2'))]"
              }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
      "apiVersion": "2018-11-01",
      "name": "[variables('networkInterfaceName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses', variables('publicIPAddressName'))]",
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks', variables('vNetName'))]",
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups', variables('networkSecurityGroupName'))]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "ipConfigurations": [
          {
            "name": "ipconfig1",
            "properties": {
              "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
              "publicIPAddress": {
                "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses', variables('publicIPAddressName'))]"
              },
              "subnet": {
                "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/subnets', variables('vNetName'), variables('vNetSubnetName'))]"
              }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
      "apiVersion": "2018-10-01",
      "name": "[variables('vmName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', variables('networkInterfaceName'))]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "hardwareProfile": {
          "vmSize": "[parameters('vmSize')]"
        },
        "osProfile": {
          "computerName": "[variables('vmName')]",
          "adminUsername": "[parameters('adminUsername')]",
          "linuxConfiguration": {
            "disablePasswordAuthentication": true,
            "ssh": {
              "publicKeys": [
                {
                  "path": "[concat('/home/', parameters('adminUsername'), '/.ssh/authorized_keys')]",
                  "keyData": "[parameters('adminPublicKey')]"
                }
              ]
            }
          }
        },
        "storageProfile": {
          "imageReference": {
            "publisher": "[parameters('operatingSystemPublisher')]",
            "offer": "[parameters('operatingSystem')]",
            "sku": "[parameters('operatingSystemSKU')]",
            "version": "latest"
          },
          "osDisk": {
            "createOption": "fromImage"
          }
        },
        "networkProfile": {
          "networkInterfaces": [
            {
              "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', variables('networkInterfaceName'))]"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "outputs": {
    "adminUsername": {
      "type": "string",
      "value": "[parameters('adminUsername')]"
    }
  }
}

Sources

[1]: azure_rm_deployment – Create or destroy Azure Resource Manager template deployments