Azure Advisor recommendations - Commands & Configuration

Introduction

Sometimes cloud resources are not used efficiently or securely. Azure Advisor helps by giving personalized tips to improve your Azure setup. It shows recommendations to save money, improve security, and boost performance.

When you want to find ways to reduce your Azure costs without affecting your apps.

When you need to improve the security of your Azure resources quickly.

When you want to optimize the performance of your virtual machines or databases.

When you want to follow best practices recommended by Microsoft for your Azure environment.

When you want to check if your Azure resources are configured correctly and safely.

Commands

This command lists all current Azure Advisor recommendations in a simple table format so you can see what improvements are suggested.

Terminal

az advisor recommendation list --output table

Expected Output

Category    Resource              RecommendationType          Impact    ShortDescription

----------  --------------------  -------------------------  --------  ---------------------------------

Cost        my-vm                 ShutdownUnusedVM            High      Consider shutting down unused VM

Security    my-storage-account    EnableSecureTransfer        Medium    Enable secure transfer on storage

Performance my-sql-db              OptimizeIndexing           Low       Review indexing for better perf

→

--output - Formats the output; 'table' makes it easy to read in the terminal

This command shows detailed information about a specific recommendation using its unique ID, so you understand what action to take.

Terminal

az advisor recommendation show --recommendation-id 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc

Expected Output

Id: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc

Category: Cost

Impact: High

ShortDescription: Consider shutting down unused VM

ImpactedResource: /subscriptions/abc/resourceGroups/my-rg/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/my-vm

ExtendedProperties:

  - Property: EstimatedMonthlySavings

    Value: $50

  - Property: ImpactedResourceType

    Value: Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines

RecommendationType: ShutdownUnusedVM

This command dismisses a recommendation you do not want to act on now, with a note explaining why, so it does not keep showing up.

Terminal

az advisor recommendation dismiss --recommendation-id 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc --notes "Not applicable currently"

Expected Output

Recommendation 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc dismissed successfully.

→

--notes - Adds a reason for dismissing the recommendation

Key Concept

If you remember nothing else from this pattern, remember: Azure Advisor gives easy-to-understand tips to improve your cloud setup based on your actual usage.

Common Mistakes

Ignoring the recommendation IDs and trying to dismiss or show recommendations without specifying the correct ID.

The commands require the exact recommendation ID to work; without it, the command fails or affects the wrong resource.

Always list recommendations first to get the correct ID, then use that ID in show or dismiss commands.

Not using the --output flag and getting JSON output that is hard to read.

JSON output is verbose and not user-friendly for quick checks in the terminal.

Use --output table for a clean, readable summary of recommendations.

Summary

Use 'az advisor recommendation list' to see all improvement suggestions for your Azure resources.

Use 'az advisor recommendation show' with a recommendation ID to get detailed advice on a specific issue.

Use 'az advisor recommendation dismiss' to remove recommendations that are not relevant to your situation.