Why Is Azure So Broken?

Mike-E-angelo 501

I am attempting to use the Template Export to export a resource group. Azure itself is the one that creates this template, not me. When I attempt to deploy or add the template that Azure creates, I get the following error:

   Deployment template validation failed: 'The number of template resources limit exceeded. Limit: '800' and actual: '2829'. Please see https://aka.ms/arm-template/#resources for usage details.'. (Code: InvalidTemplate)

Why is Azure creating something that will ultimately fail and is invalid from the outset?

Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-03T19:08:01.053+00:00

"Let us help you, but not really"
Andreas Baumgarten 108.8K Reputation points MVP

2022-08-03T19:23:53.43+00:00

Hi @Mike-E-angelo ,

maybe these links will help to understand what happens and how to solve the issue:
https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/deployment-history-deletions?tabs=azure-powershell
https://www.gatevnotes.com/overcoming-the-maximum-limit-for-deployments-per-resource-group/

Basically it's not an issue with the exported template but related to the deployment history.

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(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten
Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-04T09:06:41.433+00:00

I did not post this as a comment but as an answer. It appears someone edited this Answer and now it is a comment? It also further appears that I am taking a shot at @Andreas Baumgarten and that is not the case at all. Please do not edit comments/answers unless you get the consent of the author! Or at the very least, provide a comment letting people know why an answer was converted to a comment. Seriously. Fighting Azure and now your CMS...
Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-04T09:08:19.153+00:00

Interestingly enough @Andreas Baumgarten it appears someone took your "answer" and made it a "comment" ... lots of broken buggy software/processes all around. But back to your articles. Thank you for posting them. However, after following its guidance and running the scripts I now have 3000 resources rather than 2800.

2 answers

ajkuma 26,131 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-08-04T20:17:50.067+00:00

Mike, Thanks for posting this question.

Firstly, apologies for any frustration experience with this issue.

Just adding to AndreasBaumgarten (thank you!), as mentioned in this documentation, 800 is the # Resource limitation in the template.
-*-800 resources (including copy count)* (screenshot below)

yes, you can export an entire resource group ( as you have done already) or specific resources within that resource group (for reusing the template, as per your needs).
See - Choose the right export option

As I understand (error message), you have more than 800 Resources' in the Resource Group. If it’s feasible, you may consider restructuring the template to use Nested templates:
Link templates for deployment - Azure Resource Manager | Microsoft Learn
Based on your requirement, to deploy complex solutions, you can break your ARM template into many related templates, and then deploy them together through a main template.

Looks like Andreas’s answer was converted into comment by a moderator, since you’d mentioned it was not helpful. Converting an answer to a comment
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ajkuma 26,131 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-08-04T20:23:21.557+00:00

Adding more:

Ref: ARM template best practices | Template limits

If you wish you may share (post a new idea) your feedback on this on our Uservoice - All of the feedback, you share in these forums will be monitored and reviewed by the Microsoft engineering teams responsible for building Azure. Additionally, users with a similar request can up-vote you post and add their comments. I’ll also relay the feedback on this internally to our product team.

Once again, apologies for the trouble with this. Much appreciate your feedback, patience and cooperation!

Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-04T20:23:45.163+00:00

Thank you for your reply @ajkuma I definitely appreciate you trying to point me in the right direction. However, it sounds like I am saddled here with a bunch of work now? I am still beyond amazed that Azure has a limit but its tooling does not help you produce artifacts that meet that limit. I simply want to point it at my resource group and export it so I can create it at a later time (after deleting it) and/or create a new one at any time that's like it. Is this not possible? Why is there so much work involved to perform such an obviously valuable task? Can you imagine having to break down your Word/office XML file into an appropriate amount of sub XML documents so that you can open your basic document file? That's exactly what is happening here from my perspective.

Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-04T20:29:06.857+00:00

Yes it has been made very clear about the very arbitrary and perplexing resource limit. That is not up for discussion. The problem is that there does not seem to be any viable way to get resources under that limit so it's basically a very broken "feature."

As for your feedback system. Have you actually taken a look at how many feedback items you have listed in your portal vs. how many actually get completed? It's like 1000 to 1. Azure's "feedback" system is where ideas go to die.

Great case in point: https://feedback.azure.com/d365community/idea/0bc4629d-fe24-ec11-b6e6-000d3a4f0858

FOUR FREAKING YEARS?!?! how long does it take to flip a bit in a database? Man those are some cushy jobs over there in Azure. Maybe I'll apply for one.

Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-04T20:42:15.6+00:00

I'm not trying to get on your case here, @ajkuma and I appreciate your effort. Please note that I did NOT say ""Let us help you, but not really"" as a comment to @Andreas Baumgarten but that I had originally posted that as an answer. Someone took my answer and then made a comment under @Andreas Baumgarten 's comment (which also used to be an answer, too). Now it looks like exactly what you are suggesting: that I made a snarky comment specifically to another user's comment, and that is fully 100% NOT the case and completely misrepresentative of what occurred.

Again, having to deal with problems in Azure and with the CMS system that deals with problems with Azure. :P

Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-04T20:45:54.44+00:00

Another case in point @ajkuma ... I mean, I would suggest actually looking at this "feedback" system:

https://feedback.azure.com/d365community/forum/5f0f6921-fd24-ec11-b6e6-000d3a4f0858

The top vote there has over 3k votes and is open for five years. You have another one below that with 1k votes for TWELVE FULL YEARS. That is completely laughable. Why would I want to contribute to a system where nothing gets done?

Then there's this gem:

Of 377 ideas... that's a 0-percent success rate. Why would anyone contribute knowing this?

Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-22T09:49:22.597+00:00

I have a bit of a point there, don't I, @ajkuma :D Very little if any feedback is actually attended to by the Azure team, which makes it not only look like they do not listen to their customers, but makes one wonder how everyone over there is actually spending their time. Not a good look in any case!
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Andreas Baumgarten 108.8K Reputation points MVP

2022-08-04T21:29:31.35+00:00

Hi @Mike-E-angelo ,

everything is fine! Don't worry about the answer/comment/whatever issue and your comment!

If you like to deploy Azure resources again and again, there is maybe a better way to achieve this.
There are different "Infrastructure As Code" solutions available. For instance Terraform and Bicep.

With both solutions it's possible to convert the ARM Template (Bicep) or the deployed environment (Terraform) in files that can be deployed again:
Bicep - Decompile ARM Template to Bicep: https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/bicep/decompile?tabs=azure-cli
Terraform - Azure Terrafy: https://github.com/Azure/aztfy

Please be aware that in both cases it might be some fine tuning is required. But if this is done you can deploy the same environment more than once.

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(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten
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Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-05T09:41:48.747+00:00

Thank you for your continued assistance @Andreas Baumgarten . Let's hope this answer doesn't get converted to a comment as well :)

I did try Bicep, but I don't even see SQL or Key Vault resources as part of its decompiled file. It's mostly AppService it looks like, and a lot of them (snapshots?) are not supported?

Forgive me for feeling this is really broken and untested/unused.

I simply want to take the resource group that I have spent weeks designing and export it to a file that I can use later. Seems like this would be a simple and obvious function in Azure.

Mike-E-angelo 501 Reputation points

2022-08-05T09:41:58.67+00:00

Everything is broken
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Why Is Azure So Broken?

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