az-container

Create a container in a container group

$ az container create [[-g|--resource-group]] [resource_group] [[-n|--name]] [name] --image [image_name] [[-os|--os-type]] [windows|linux] --cpu [number_of_CPU_cores] --memory [memory_in_GB]

$ az container exec [[-g|--resource-group]] [resource_group] [[-n|--name]] [container_group_name] --exec-command "[command]"

$ az container logs [[-n|--name]] [name] [[-g|--resource-group]] [resource_group]

$ az container show [[-n|--name]] [name] [[-g|--resource-group]] [resource_group]

$ az container start [[-n|--name]] [name] [[-g|--resource-group]] [resource_group]

$ az container stop [[-n|--name]] [name] [[-g|--resource-group]] [resource_group]

$ az container delete [[-n|--name]] [name] [[-g|--resource-group]] [resource_group]

az container { attach | create | delete | describe | exec | list | logs | port-forward | restart | show | update | wait } [options]

--debug
    Increase logging verbosity to show all debug logs.

--help -h
    Show this help message and exit.

--only-show-errors
    Only show errors, suppressing warnings.

--output -o
    Output format: json, jsonc, table, tsv. Default: json.

--query
    JMESPath query string. See http://jmespath.org/ for details.

--subscription
    Name or ID of subscription. Use az account set -s NAME_OR_ID for default.

--verbose
    Increase logging verbosity. Use --debug for full logs.

The az container command is part of the Azure Command-Line Interface (Azure CLI), a cross-platform tool for managing Azure resources. It provides a command group for Azure Container Instances (ACI), enabling users to deploy and manage Docker containers directly on Azure infrastructure without provisioning virtual machines or orchestrators like Kubernetes.

ACI offers serverless container execution, ideal for burst workloads, CI/CD pipelines, and simple apps. With az container, you can create container groups (collections of one or more containers), list running instances, view logs, execute commands inside containers, restart groups, and more.

Key features include GPU support, multi-container groups sharing resources, and public/private IP assignments. It integrates seamlessly with other Azure services like Azure Container Registry (ACR) for image pulls and Azure Files for storage.

Usage requires Azure CLI installation (az --version to check), login via az login, and an active subscription. Commands often require --resource-group and --name for targeting specific instances. Output formats include JSON, table, and TSV for scripting.

Requires Azure CLI 2.0+ and az login. Not all subcommands support every option; check az container <subcommand> --help. ACI has regional availability, billing per second, and 90-day log retention limits.

az container create: Deploy new group.
az container list: List groups in resource group.
az container logs: Fetch logs.

Install Azure CLI: curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash. Login: az login.

Introduced with Azure CLI 2.0 in 2017 alongside ACI preview. Became generally available in 2018 with subcommands like create and logs. Evolved with ACI features: GPU support (2019), confidential computing (2021), and vCPU/memory optimizations.

az acr(1), az aks(1), docker(1)