Exercise - Deploy a container instance by using the Azure CLI

  • 10 minutes

In this exercise you learn how to perform the following actions:

  • Create a resource group for the container
  • Create a container
  • Verify the container is running

Prerequisites

  • An Azure account with an active subscription. If you don't already have one, you can sign up for a free trial at https://azure.com/free

Sign-in to Azure and create the resource group

  1. Sign-in to the Azure portal and open the Cloud Shell.

    The location of Cloud Shell launch button.

  2. When the shell opens be sure to select the Bash environment.

    Selecting the Bash environment.

  3. Create a new resource group with the name az204-aci-rg so that it's easier to clean up these resources when you're finished with the module. Replace <myLocation> with a region near you.

    az group create --name az204-aci-rg --location <myLocation>

Create a container

You create a container by providing a name, a Docker image, and an Azure resource group to the az container create command. You expose the container to the Internet by specifying a DNS name label.

  1. Create a DNS name to expose your container to the Internet. Your DNS name must be unique, run this command from Cloud Shell to create a variable that holds a unique name.

    DNS_NAME_LABEL=aci-example-$RANDOM

  2. Run the following az container create command to start a container instance. Be sure to replace the <myLocation> with the region you specified earlier. It takes a few minutes for the operation to complete.

    az container create --resource-group az204-aci-rg \
    --name mycontainer \
    --image mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aci-helloworld \
    --ports 80 \
    --dns-name-label $DNS_NAME_LABEL --location <myLocation>

    In the previous command, $DNS_NAME_LABEL specifies your DNS name. The image name, mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aci-helloworld, refers to a Docker image that runs a basic Node.js web application.

Verify the container is running

  1. When the az container create command completes, run az container show to check its status.

    az container show --resource-group az204-aci-rg \
    --name mycontainer \
    --query "{FQDN:ipAddress.fqdn,ProvisioningState:provisioningState}" \
    --out table

    You see your container's fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and its provisioning state. Here's an example.

    FQDN                                    ProvisioningState
--------------------------------------  -------------------
aci-wt.eastus.azurecontainer.io         Succeeded

    Note

    If your container is in the Creating state, wait a few moments and run the command again until you see the Succeeded state.

  2. From a browser, navigate to your container's FQDN to see it running. You may get a warning that the site isn't safe.

Clean up resources

When no longer needed, you can use the az group delete command to remove the resource group, the container registry, and the container images stored there.

az group delete --name az204-aci-rg --no-wait