How to delete resources at scale using the Azure CLI

  • Article

As an Azure resource manager, you frequently have to delete multiple Azure resources when tearing down an old environment. Some CLI devTest environments also need a periodic clean up so charges are not incurred for temporary Azure resources that have lingered longer.

In this Azure CLI sample you will learn the following:

  • Delete multiple Azure resources from a script
  • Log script progress to a local TXT file

This sample script has been tested in Azure Cloud Shell in a Bash environment. This script has also been tested successfully in Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS using Windows Terminal.

Delete Azure resources filtering by name

Use this script to list and delete resource groups that start with a given word.

# Set your subscription
subscriptionID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000
az account set --subscription $subscriptionID

# Set your log file location
logFileLocation="myLogName.txt"

# Get the name of all resource groups that start with 'msdocs'
az group list --query "[?starts_with(name, 'msdocs') == \`true\`].name" -o table

# Delete resource groups without a confirmation prompt (--yes)
# Do not wait for the operation to finish (--no-wait)
echo "Deleting resource groups">$logFileLocation
for rgList in $(az group list --query "[?starts_with(name, 'msdocs') == \`true\`].name" -o tsv); 
do
    echo "deleting resource group $rgList">>$logFileLocation
    az group delete --name $rgList --yes --no-wait
done

# read your log file with Linux "cat" command
clear
cat $logFileLocation

Delete Azure resources filtering by creation date

Use this script to list and delete storage accounts that were created within a date range.

# Set your log file location
logFileLocation="myLogName.txt"

# Set your resource group variable
rgName=<msdocs-rg-0000000>

# Get a list of Azure storage accounts that were created in the last 30 days. Return the results as a table.
saDate=$(date +%F -d "-30days")
az storage account list --resource-group $rgName \
                        --query "[?creationTime >='$saDate'].{saName:name, createdTimeStamp:creationTime}" \
                        --output table

# Delete storage accounts without a confirmation prompt (--yes).
# Do not wait for the operation to finish (--no-wait)
echo "Deleting storage accounts">$logFileLocation
for saList in $(az storage account list --resource-group $rgName \
                        --query "[?creationTime >='$saDate'].{saName:name, createdTimeStamp:creationTime}" \
                        --output tsv);
do
    echo "deleting storage account $saList">>$logFileLocation
    az storage account delete --ids $saList --yes --no-wait
done

# read your log file with Linux "cat" command
clear
cat $logFileLocation

Delete all azure resources of a type

Delete all Virtual Machines in a resource group

# Set your resource group variable
rgName=<msdocs-rg-0000000>

az group delete -n $rgName --force-deletion-types Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines

See also