This is step 1 of 7 of Hands-On Project 1 for Azure. In this step, you sign up for an Azure account (if you don’t have one), and create an Azure resource group to contain the resources for this project.
Create Your Azure account
As of this writing, Azure offers slightly more generous free accounts where you are given a budget and you can spend the budget on whatever services you want. There are two types of account that offer free services:
- Standard Free Account. The standard account offers a $200 credit that you must use within 30 days, and it includes certain services that are free for 12 months. Once 30 days has passed, the account converts into a pay-as-you-go account that accrues the normal charges. One strategy to pay for your hands-on projects is to sign up for this account, try to use up your $200 intelligently, and continue with a pay-for account afterwards. Sign up for this type of account here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/
- Educational Account. If you have a .edu email address, you can obtain an Azure educational account. The account offers a $100 credit to be used within 12 months, and it also includes certain services that are free for 12 months. The educational account can be renewed once per year for as long as you are a student. This account might be the preferred way of doing the hands-on projects on this site, because it gives yo 12 months to use up your credits rather than just 30 days. Sign up for an educational account here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/students/
You can pay for Azure services with a credit card, or a debit card if it is not prepaid. If you do not have a credit card you are willing to use, the best way to set up your account is probably to use a pre-paid credit card.
Please follow the instructions to create an appropriate account on Azure.
Make sure you have your passwords securely stored in a place you can find them if you forget them.
User Accounts in Azure
Within Azure, access to the resources in your account is controlled by the Azure Active Directory (AD). Using the AD is quite involved, so for purposes of these projects, we will be using the main user within your Azure account to do the work.
Create a Resource Group
In Azure, a resource group is a grouping of individual resources. All Azure resources must be created within resource groups. The resource group provides a level for managing resources. For example, you can create all the resources for a project or application within one resource group and then track charges at the resource group level, and later delete all the resources at once by deleting the resource group.
Using the Azure portal, create a resource group to contain your resources for your hands-on projects. You can create more than one, but one will likely be enough — it may simplify your life to have just one. I recommend ending your resource names with “-rg” to distinguish resource groups from other resource names.