Multi-region deployment patterns in Azure - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Multi-region deployment patterns

📖 Scenario: You are working for a company that wants to deploy a web application in multiple Azure regions to improve availability and reduce latency for users worldwide.You will create a simple Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template that defines a multi-region deployment pattern with two regions.

🎯 Goal: Build an ARM template that deploys a storage account in two different Azure regions using parameters and variables to manage the regions.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a parameter for the list of regions

Define a variable to hold the storage account name prefix

Use a copy loop to deploy storage accounts in each region

Set the location of each storage account to the corresponding region

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Multi-region deployment improves application availability and performance by placing resources closer to users and providing failover options.

💼 Career

Cloud architects and DevOps engineers use multi-region deployment patterns to design resilient and scalable cloud infrastructure.

1

Create the parameters section with regions

Create a parameters section in the ARM template with a parameter called regions of type array that contains exactly these two values: "eastus" and "westus".

Azure

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    // Your code here
  },
  "variables": {},
  "resources": [],
  "outputs": {}
}

Need a hint?

Use parameters with a name regions and set its type to array. Provide the two regions as the defaultValue.

2

Add a variables section with storageAccountPrefix

Add a variables section with a variable called storageAccountPrefix and set its value to "mystorage".

Azure

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "regions": {
      "type": "array",
      "defaultValue": ["eastus", "westus"]
    }
  },
  "variables": {
    // Your code here
  },
  "resources": [],
  "outputs": {}
}

Need a hint?

Inside variables, define storageAccountPrefix with the value "mystorage".

3

Add a resources section with a copy loop for storage accounts

Add a resources array with one resource of type Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts. Use a copy loop with count set to length(parameters('regions')). Set the name of each storage account to concat(variables('storageAccountPrefix'), copyIndex()). Set the location to parameters('regions')[copyIndex()]. Use Standard_LRS for sku.name and StorageV2 for kind.

Azure

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "regions": {
      "type": "array",
      "defaultValue": ["eastus", "westus"]
    }
  },
  "variables": {
    "storageAccountPrefix": "mystorage"
  },
  "resources": [
    // Your code here
  ],
  "outputs": {}
}

Need a hint?

Use the copy property inside the resource to loop over the regions parameter. Use copyIndex() to get the current index for naming and location.

4

Add an outputs section to list deployed storage account names

Add an outputs section with an output called storageAccountNames. Set its type to array. Use copy with count equal to length(parameters('regions')) to output the names of all storage accounts using concat(variables('storageAccountPrefix'), copyIndex()).

Azure

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "regions": {
      "type": "array",
      "defaultValue": ["eastus", "westus"]
    }
  },
  "variables": {
    "storageAccountPrefix": "mystorage"
  },
  "resources": [
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts",
      "apiVersion": "2022-09-01",
      "name": "[concat(variables('storageAccountPrefix'), copyIndex())]",
      "location": "[parameters('regions')[copyIndex()]]",
      "sku": {
        "name": "Standard_LRS"
      },
      "kind": "StorageV2",
      "copy": {
        "name": "storageLoop",
        "count": "[length(parameters('regions'))]"
      },
      "properties": {}
    }
  ],
  "outputs": {
    // Your code here
  }
}

Need a hint?

Use the outputs section with a copy loop similar to the resource copy to list all storage account names.