az
Unified command-line interface for Microsoft Azure
TLDR
SYNOPSIS
az [group] [subgroup] [command] [options]
DESCRIPTION
az is the unified command-line interface for Microsoft Azure. It provides access to Azure services including virtual machines, storage, databases, Kubernetes, and hundreds of other cloud resources through a consistent cross-platform interface.The CLI enables automation, scripting, and management of Azure resources without using the web portal.
PARAMETERS
--output, -o format
Output format (json, jsonc, table, tsv, yaml, none)--query
JMESPath query to filter output--subscription id
Subscription name or ID--resource-group, -g name
Resource group name--location, -l region
Azure region--verbose
Increase logging verbosity--debug
Enable debug logging--only-show-errors
Only show errors
CONFIGURATION
~/.azure/config
INI-format configuration file for defaults and settings. Sections include [core], [defaults], and [cloud]. Managed via `az config set`.
az config set core.output=table
# Set default location
az config set defaults.location=eastus
COMMON SERVICES
- vm - Virtual machines- storage - Storage accounts- aks - Azure Kubernetes Service- webapp - Web apps- sql - SQL databases- cosmosdb - Cosmos DB- keyvault - Key Vault- network - Networking resources- group - Resource groups- account - Account management
INSTALL
CAVEATS
Requires an active Azure subscription and prior `az login`. Some operations are destructive and have no undo. API throttling can affect large bulk scripts. New Azure services may take weeks or months to gain full CLI parity. Prefer --query with JMESPath over piping through shell tools for reliable scripting.
HISTORY
The Azure CLI 2.0 was released by Microsoft in 2017 as a complete rewrite of the original Azure CLI, built in Python with focus on usability and cross-platform support.
SEE ALSO
az-login(1), az-account(1), terraform(1)
