Updated March 13, 2023
Introduction to Azure naming conventions
Generally, there are many combinations of subscription, resource names, and resource groups to make the environment more structured. So, Azure also follows certain naming conventions to organize the environment. However, the resource list of Azure is actually a mess, and it needs to be arranged by using default alphabetically order, and sometimes it becomes hard to search and find when there are no proper naming conventions used. In this article, we will discuss the naming properties and their rules to use accordingly so that we can locate and define things effectively and easily.
What are Azure naming conventions?
People don’t even worry about the title; they are giving to the objects. They randomly give like “xyzfebw.” Azure finds it difficult to frame these internal discrepancies for naming the resources, and the users don’t have any idea about the names or titles given. Azure enables alphanumeric lowercase for few resources and sometimes rarely supports the bunch of characters like hyphen, underscore, Case insensitive, and Alphanumeric. Sometimes, the chance of using the hyphen is permitted, and in some areas, it is disabled. But few clients have chosen to never use hyphen icons, and their title is like this is a place to read.
Some clients prefer to use a globally unique name when it is deployed from REST, API, CLI, PowerShell. However, once it is named, it cannot be renamed again. So we have to be cautious the first time.
Naming policies
The pattern followed in naming should support grouping for beginner’s application level to chargeback if billing is required again. Few resources are limited by case-sensitivity and length of identifier.
- The conventions should explain the variety of resources in the subscription. Few resources should hold a unique name across the whole of Azure. They are offering standard names before implementation may be imperative and cannot be changed again. So, before naming the implementation, you also should have a clear idea.
- Azure will create various resources automatically. For example, if any network interface or virtual machine disk has poor names, they can be changed using ARM templates, CLI, Azure API, or PowerShell.
- If the user doesn’t follow these naming conventions, sometimes there is a chance to run into naming conflicts with other users. So it is advised to follow some strategies related to the project deployed.
Naming Limitations
Every service type or resource has to enforce a finite naming scope and naming restrictions. Therefore, any naming pattern should stick to the perquisite naming scope and rules. For example, the name of any Virtual machine should be mapped to the DNS name, and definitely, it needs to be unique. Furthermore, the name of the virtual network should be related to the related resource group placed within the VNET.
The naming identifier is referred to the various aspects which explain the particular resources, and they are distinguished for building a proper naming convention. Before giving the name to the resources, some common names should be drafted and used as identifiers; we can process with the naming conventions.
The client names should be shortened and used to find the services of the client without surpassing the naming limitations followed in Azure.
The service’s name is implied to explain the service offered, and it should be given without surpassing the naming limitations.
| Resources | Scope | Rules |
| Storage account name | It should be in alphanumeric and lowercase | It should not have uppercases, dots, and dashes |
| SQL server name | Azure cloud name or the given storage account name | It should be unique |
| Service names and virtual machines | Length should be considered | Allowed only two to fifteen characters |
| Client name | EDUCBA | It can be abbreviated as eca |
| Service provided | Educational courses and certification programs | It can be abbreviated as eccp |
Companies have various stages of working, and for all the stages, it requires the same setup. But it is not possible with the same names.
- Production environment – it is active and lives. The real-time data is executed according to the subscription of Azure production. Along with names, it can be mentioned as prod or p beyond the given standard names.
- Development environment – here, all the validation systems with upcoming features are running before the roll-out, or final process to the production system is placed. It is more or less close to the production environment. So here, along with the standard name, it can be mentioned as dev or d
- Testing environment – it is used to try newly developed or developing features that are not completed. So it can be mentioned as t or tst
- Training environment – it is mostly used by the freshers or someone coming with innovative ideas. So that they can use it from here, it can be mentioned as tr or trn.
Apart from these, there is a staging and transition environment used mostly.
The naming of the resources
Let’s frame a few rules which can be implied for most of the Azure resources.
- Go with lower cases and use hyphens wherever it is allowed.
- Try to include the name of the services.
- Abbreviation of Azure services can be used in prefix or suffix.
- Strictly follow no spaces. The resource names can be built with three minimum parts joining together without any delimiters, spaces, and hyphens.
- It is best to include the instance number for highly available resources.
- Use resource-naming convention according to the rules.
The universal recommendation for naming your environment is given,
(Name of the client)(Environment used)(Location of the project)(Number of instances)(Name of the services offered)(Name of the resource)
- Name of the client – Educba
- Environment – Production
- Location – Asia Pacific
- Service – Educational courses and certification programs
- Instance number – 01
Name of the resource group – eca-p-ap-01-eccp-rg
Rg-resource group
Name of the service application – eca-p-ap-01-eccp-svc
The name of the storage account should be globally unique, have no hyphen, and be limited to 24 characters. The storage account is the only resource that enables lowercase with zero hyphens.
Conclusion – Azure naming conventions
Hence, following a proper and well-defined naming convention is important to make your environment structured and organized. So that it will make the work easier to all the people belongs to the environment.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to Azure naming conventions. Here we discuss the Azure naming conventions properties and their rules to use accordingly so that we can able to locate and define things effectively and easily. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
