Azure Naming Convention 5d5342

Naming conventions for Azure resources

Author: Amitkumar Singh Version: 1.0 Date:

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Contents 1

Introduction.................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................................................ 3

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Naming Principals ....................................................................................................... 3

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Naming Limitations in Azure ....................................................................................... 4

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Naming Identifier ......................................................................................................... 4 4.1 Subscriptions ................................................................................................................................ 6 4.2 General ......................................................................................................................................... 7 4.3 Compute ....................................................................................................................................... 7 4.4 Storage ......................................................................................................................................... 8 4.5 Networking.................................................................................................................................... 8 4.6 Containers .................................................................................................................................. 10 4.7 Service Bus ................................................................................................................................ 10

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1 Introduction 1.1 Purpose This document is a summary of the naming rules and restrictions for Azure resources and a baseline set of recommendations for naming conventions. You can use these recommendations as a starting point for own conventions specific to your needs. The choice of a name for any resource in Microsoft Azure is important because:   

It is difficult to change a name later. Names must meet the requirements of their specific resource type. Consistent naming conventions make resources easier to locate. They can also indicate the role of a resource in a solution.

The key to success with naming conventions is establishing and following them across your applications and organizations.

2 Naming Principals The naming pattern must easy application level grouping for show back/charge back billing when required. Constraints: Some resources are constrained by their identifier length, and case sensitivity The convention MUST Describes type of resource in the subscription. Constraints: Some resources must be uniquely named across entire Azure. The establishment of good name standard before you implementing different types of resources is imperative, as it can be difficult, or sometimes impossible to rename them afterwards.

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Azure will try to automatically create various resources. For example Virtual Machine Disks and Network Interfaces will still be named poorly. However, they can be named properly by using ARM templates, Powershell, Azure API or CLI. It is unlikely that if we follow these rules for global naming that we will run into any naming conflicts with other Azure s. However, the chance still exists, so you need a strategy for coping with such conflicts.

3 Naming Limitations in Azure Azure has a number of constraints, which are implemented at different scopes, and must be considered while naming resources. Most of them are documented under Microsoft Naming conventions documentation. Some important limitations worth mentioning: Scope: Alpha-Numeric Azure Cloud Length Lower Case

Resources: Storage Name SQL Server Name, Storage Name Search Service and Virtual Machines Storage Name

Constraint: Cannot have dash, dot Must be unique across Azure not just subscription 2 to 15 characters Cannot be upper characters

4 Naming Identifier An identifier can refer to different aspects that describe the particular resources and are eminent for building a good naming convention. When naming resources in Azure, it is recommended to use common prefixes or suffixes to identify the type and context of the resource. It is important to clearly specify whether the affix is at the beginning of the name (prefix) or at the end (suffix). Affixes can refer to different aspects that describe the particular resources. The following table shows some examples typically used.

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Aspect Environment Location Instance

Example dev, prod, QA uw (US West), ue (US East) 1, 2, ...

Notes Identifies the environment for the resource Identifies the region into which the resource is deployed For resources that have more than one named instance such as VMs or NICs.

Product or Service

service

Identifies the product, application, or service that the resource s

Role

sql, web, messaging

Identifies the role of the associated resource

A list of some Azure services that can be identified by an abbreviation.

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Resource/Service: Subscription Resource Group

Short Code: sub rg

Virtual Machine

vm

Availability Set

avs

Virtual Network

vnet

Subnet

sub

Public IP Address

pip

Network Security Group

nsg

Storage

stg

Traffic Manager

tm

Load Balancer

lb

Application Gateway

agw

App Service

svc

Key Vault

kv

App Service Plan

asp

Sql Database

sdb

Sql Server

sql

Disk

dsk

DNS Zone

dns

Log Analytics

loa

Logic App

log

Network Interface

nic

4.1 Subscriptions When naming Azure subscriptions, verbose names make understanding the context and purpose of each subscription clear. When working in an environment with many subscriptions, following a shared naming convention can improve clarity. A recommended pattern for naming subscriptions is:

<Environment> 

Company would usually be the same for each subscription. However, some companies may have child companies within the organizational structure. These companies may be managed by a central IT group. In these cases, they could be differentiated by having both the parent company name (ABC) and child company name (XYZ).



Department is a name within the organization that contains a group of individuals. This item within the namespace is optional.



Product line is a specific name for a product or function that is performed from within the department. This is typically optional for internal-facing services and applications. However, it is highly recommended to use for public-facing services that require easy separation and identification (such as for clear separation of billing records). BLAZECLAN

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

Environment is the name that describes the deployment lifecycle of the applications or services, such as Dev, QA, or Prod.

Company Name ABC ABC ABC ABC

Dept SocialGaming SocialGaming IT

Product Line or Service AwesomeService AwesomeService InternalApps

Env

Full Name

Production Dev Production

ABC SocialGaming AwesomeService Production ABC SocialGaming AwesomeService Dev ABC IT InternalApps Production

IT

InternalApps

Dev

ABC IT InternalApps Dev

4.2 General Entity Resource Group

Scope Subscription

Length 1 - 90

Casing Case insensitiv e

Availability Set

Resource Group

1 - 80

Tag

Associated Entity

512 (name), 256 (value)

Case insensitiv e Case insensitiv e

Web App

Global

1 - 60

API Management

Global

1 - 50

Case insensitiv e Case insensitiv e

Valid Characters Alphanumeric, underscore, parentheses, hyphen, period (except at end), and Unicode characters that match the regex documented here. Alphanumeric, underscore, and hyphen Alphanumeric, special characters except <, >, %, &, \, ? , /. See limitations here. Alphanumeric and hyphen Alphanumeric and hyphen

Suggested Pattern <service short name><environment>rg

Example profx-prod-rg

<service-shortname> -as "key" : "value"

profx-sql-as

<source-slotname>

contoso-staging

"department" : "Central IT"

contoso

4.3 Compute Entity

Scope

Length

Casing

Valid Characters

Suggested Pattern

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Virtual Machine Function App

Resource Group Global

1-15 (Windows), 164 (Linux) 1 - 60

Case insensitive Case insensitive

Alphanumeric and hyphen Alphanumeric and hyphen

- vm -func

profx-sqlvm1 calrofitfunc

4.4 Storage Entity

Scope

Length

Casing

Valid Characters

Suggested Pattern (use a function to calculate a unique guid for naming storage s) st

profxdata001

Example

Storage name (data)

Global

3-24

Lowercase

Alphanumeric

Storage name (disks)

Global

3-24

Lowercase

Alphanumeric

Container name

Storage Container

3-63

Lowercase

Alphanumeric and hyphen Any URL characters



logs





<service short name>- <service short name>

awesomeservicemessages-001

Blob name

1-1024

Case sensitive

profxsql001st0

Queue name

Storage

3-63

Lowercase

Alphanumeric and hyphen

Table name

Storage

3-63

Case insensitive

Alphanumeric

File name

Storage

3-63

Lowercase

Alphanumeric





Data Lake Store

Global

3-24

Lowercase

Alphanumeric

dls

telemetrydls

awesomeservicelogs

4.5 Networking Entity

Scope

Length

Casing

Valid Characters

Suggested Pattern

Example

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Virtual Network (VNet)

Resource Group

2-64

Case insensitive

Subnet

Parent VNet

2-80

Case insensitive

Network Interface

Resource Group

1-80

Case insensitive

Network Security Group

Resource Group

1-80

Case insensitive

Network Security Group Rule

Resource Group

1-80

Case insensitive

Public IP Address

Resource Group

1-80

Case insensitive

Load Balancer

Resource Group

1-80

Case insensitive

Load Balanced Rules Config

Load Balancer

1-80

Case insensitive

Azure Application Gateway

Resource Group

1-80

Case insensitive

Traffic Manager Profile

Resource Group

1-63

Case insensitive

Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period Alphanumeric, hyphen, and period

<service short name>-vnet

profx-vnet

<descriptive context>

web

nic

profx-sql1vm1-nic1

<service short name>- nsg

profx-app-nsg

<descriptive context>

sql-allow

-pip

profx-sql1vm1-pip

<service or role>-lb

profx-lb

<descriptive context>

http

<service or role>agw

profx-agw

<descriptive context>

app1

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4.6 Containers Entity Container Registry

Scope Global

Length

Casing

5-50

Case insensitive

Length

Casing

6-50

Case insensitive

Valid Characters

Suggested Pattern

Alphanumeric

<service short name>registry

Example app1registry

4.7 Service Bus Entity Service Bus Namespace

Scope Global

Valid Characters Alphanumeric, hyphen, must start with a letter; see here for details.

Suggested Pattern <service short name>-bus

Example app1-bus

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