Azure dashboards - Commands & Configuration

Introduction

Azure dashboards help you see important information about your cloud resources in one place. They solve the problem of checking many services separately by showing data and charts together on a single screen.

When you want to monitor the health of your web app and database together.

When you need to share cloud resource status with your team in a simple view.

When you want to track usage and costs of your Azure services visually.

When you want to create a custom view of metrics and logs for your project.

When you want to quickly spot issues by looking at charts and alerts on one page.

Commands

This command logs you into your Azure account so you can manage resources and dashboards.

Terminal

az login

Expected Output

To sign in, use a web browser to open the page https://microsoft.com/devicelogin and enter the code ABCD1234 to authenticate.



You have logged in. Now let us find all the subscriptions to which you have access...

This command creates a new Azure dashboard named 'myDashboard' in the specified resource group and location using the configuration in 'dashboard.json'.

Terminal

az monitor dashboard create --name myDashboard --resource-group myResourceGroup --location eastus --input-path dashboard.json

Expected Output

{

  "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/myResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.Portal/dashboards/myDashboard",

  "name": "myDashboard",

  "type": "Microsoft.Portal/dashboards",

  "location": "eastus",

  "properties": {

    "lenses": { ... },

    "metadata": { ... }

  }

}

→

--name - Sets the name of the dashboard.

→

--resource-group - Specifies the resource group where the dashboard will be created.

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--input-path - Path to the JSON file that defines the dashboard layout and content.

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--location - Specifies the Azure region where the dashboard will be created.

This command retrieves and shows the details of the dashboard named 'myDashboard' to verify it was created correctly.

Terminal

az monitor dashboard show --name myDashboard --resource-group myResourceGroup

Expected Output

{

  "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/myResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.Portal/dashboards/myDashboard",

  "name": "myDashboard",

  "location": "eastus",

  "properties": {

    "lenses": { ... },

    "metadata": { ... }

  }

}

→

--name - Specifies the dashboard name to show.

→

--resource-group - Specifies the resource group of the dashboard.

This command deletes the dashboard named 'myDashboard' from the resource group when it is no longer needed.

Terminal

az monitor dashboard delete --name myDashboard --resource-group myResourceGroup

Expected Output

No output (command runs silently)

→

--name - Specifies the dashboard name to delete.

→

--resource-group - Specifies the resource group of the dashboard.

Key Concept

If you remember nothing else from this pattern, remember: Azure dashboards let you combine important cloud data visually in one place for easy monitoring and sharing.

Common Mistakes

Trying to create a dashboard without logging in first.

The Azure CLI needs you to be logged in to know which account and subscriptions to use.

Always run 'az login' before managing dashboards.

Using a dashboard JSON file with invalid or missing layout details.

Azure will reject the dashboard creation if the JSON is not properly structured.

Validate your dashboard JSON file with Azure portal or schema before using it.

Not specifying the resource group when creating or deleting dashboards.

Azure needs the resource group to locate the dashboard resource correctly.

Always include the --resource-group flag with the correct group name.

Summary

Use 'az login' to sign in to your Azure account before managing dashboards.

Create dashboards with 'az monitor dashboard create' using a JSON file to define layout and content.

Verify dashboards with 'az monitor dashboard show' and clean up with 'az monitor dashboard delete'.