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The choice of a name for any resource in Microsoft Azure is important because:
- It is difficult to change a name later.
- Names must meet the requirements of their specific resource type.
Consistent naming conventions make resources easier to locate. They can also indicate the role of a resource in a solution.
The key to success with naming conventions is establishing and following them across your applications and organizations.
NOTE: Custom policies can be applied to enforce naming conventions for various resources. However, some Azure services require or attempt to automatically create resources with a specific name. Applying such a policy to your subscription may interfere with deploying these resources.
UIC Azure Resource Group Naming Convention
The Technology Solutions has created a naming convention they will use for Azure, we recommend you use something similar to help organize your resources and resource groups.
When creating a resource group in Azure, use the following format: Org-Unit-[NetID/Group]-Service Name-[Prod/Test/Dev]
Example: OVCI-Technology Solutions-ddd-web-RED-Prod
Use affixes to avoid ambiguity
When naming resources in Azure, it is recommended to use common
prefixes or suffixes to identify the type and context of the resource.
While all the information about type, metadata, context, is available
programmatically, applying common affixes simplifies visual
identification. When incorporating affixes into your naming convention,
it is important to clearly specify whether the affix is at the beginning
of the name (prefix) or at the end (suffix).
For instance, here are two possible names for a service hosting a calculation engine:
- SvcCalculationEngine (prefix)
- CalculationEngineSvc (suffix)
Affixes can refer to different aspects that describe the particular
resources. The following table shows some examples typically used.
| Aspect |
Example |
Notes |
| Environment |
dev, prod, QA |
Identifies the environment for the resource |
| Location |
uw (US West), ue (US East) |
Identifies the region into which the resource is deployed |
| Instance |
1, 2, ... |
For resources that have more than one named instance such as VMs or NICs. |
| Product or Service |
service |
Identifies the product, application, or service that the resource supports |
| Role |
sql, web, messaging |
Identifies the role of the associated resource |
When developing a specific naming convention for your Dept/Unit/projects, it is important to choose a common set of affixes and their
position (suffix or prefix).
Naming rules and restrictions
Each resource or service type in Azure enforces a set of naming
restrictions and scope. Any naming convention or pattern must adhere to
the required naming rules and scope. For example, while the name of a
virtual machine maps to a DNS name (and is thus required to be unique
across all of Azure), the name of a virtual network is scoped to the
resource group in which it resides.
In general, avoid having any special characters (- or _) as the first or last character in any name. These characters will cause most validation rules to fail.
General
| Entity |
Scope |
Length |
Casing |
Valid Characters |
Suggested Pattern |
Example |
| Resource Group |
Subscription |
1-90 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, underscore, parentheses, hyphen, period (except at end), and Unicode characters that match the regex documented here. |
<service short name>-<environment>-rg |
profx-prod-rg |
| Availability Set |
Resource Group |
1-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, underscore, and hyphen |
<service-short-name>-<context>-as |
profx-sql-as |
| Tag |
Associated Entity |
512 (name), 256 (value) |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric including Unicode characters; special characters except <, >, %, &, \, ?, /. See limitations here. |
"key" : "value" |
"department" : "Central IT" |
| API Management |
Global |
1-50 |
Insensitive |
0-9, a-z, A-Z and - |
<apim-service-name> |
contoso |
| Key Vault |
Global |
3-24 |
Insensitive |
0-9, a-z, A-Z and - |
<service short name>-<environment>-kv |
myapp-prod-kv |
Compute
| Entity |
Scope |
Length |
Casing |
Valid Characters |
Suggested Pattern |
Example |
| Virtual Machine |
Resource Group |
1-15 (Windows), 1-64 (Linux) |
Insensitive |
0-9, a-z, A-Z and - |
<name>-<role>-vm<number> |
profx-sql-vm1 |
| Function App |
Global |
1-60 |
Insensitive |
0-9, a-z, A-Z and - |
<name>-func |
calcprofit-func |
Note: Virtual machines in Azure have two distinct names: virtual machine
name, and host name. When you create a VM in the portal, the same name
is used for both the host name, and the virtual machine resource name.
The restrictions above are for the host name. The actual resource name
can have up to 64 characters.
Web
| Entity |
Scope |
Length |
Casing |
Valid Characters |
Suggested Pattern |
Example |
| Web App |
Global |
1-60 |
Insensitive |
0-9, a-z, A-Z and - |
<app_name>-<source-slot-name> |
contoso-staging |
| Web App Name |
Resource Group |
3-24 |
Insensitive |
0-9, a-z, A-Z and - |
<appname> |
mywebapp |
| Slot Name |
Web App |
2-59 |
Insensitive |
0-9, a-z, A-Z and - |
<slotname> |
production |
| Web App Setting Name |
Web App |
N/A |
Insensitive |
All characters |
N/A |
N/A |
| Web App Setting Value |
Setting |
N/A |
Insensitive |
All characters |
N/A |
N/A |
| Web App Connection String |
Web App |
N/A |
Insensitive |
All characters |
N/A |
N/A |
| Web Job Name |
Web App |
1-29 |
Insensitive |
0-9, a-z, A-Z and - |
<jobname> |
myJob |
Warning: Web App Settings Name for Linux Apps has a valid character pattern of: 0-9, a-z, A-Z, _
Storage
| Entity |
Scope |
Length |
Casing |
Valid Characters |
Suggested Pattern |
Example |
| Storage account name (data) |
Global |
3-24 |
Lowercase |
Alphanumeric |
<globally unique name><number> |
profxdata001 |
| Storage account name (disks) |
Global |
3-24 |
Lowercase |
Alphanumeric |
<vm name without hyphens>st<number> |
profxsql001st0 |
| Container name |
Storage account |
3-63 |
Lowercase |
0-9, a-z and - |
<context> |
logs |
| Blob name |
Container |
1-1024 |
Sensitive |
Any URL characters |
<variable based on blob usage> |
<variable based on blob usage> |
| Queue name |
Storage account |
3-63 |
Lowercase |
0-9, a-z and - |
<service short name>-<context>-<num> |
awesomeservice-messages-001 |
| Table name |
Storage account |
3-63 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric |
<service short name><context> |
awesomeservicelogs |
| File share name |
Storage account |
3-63 |
Lowercase |
0-9, a-z and - |
<variable based on file share usage> |
<variable based on file share usage> |
| Data Lake Store |
Global |
3-24 |
Lowercase |
Alphanumeric |
<name>dls |
telemetrydls |
| Managed Disk name |
Resource Group |
1-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen and underscore but not on character 1 |
<disktype>disk<number> |
OSdisk1 |
Networking
| Entity |
Scope |
Length |
Casing |
Valid Characters |
Suggested Pattern |
Example |
| Virtual Network (VNet) |
Resource Group |
2-64 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period |
<service short name>-vnet |
profx-vnet |
| Subnet |
Parent VNet |
2-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period |
<descriptive context> |
web |
| Network Interface |
Resource Group |
1-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period |
<vmname>-nic<num> |
profx-sql1-vm1-nic1 |
| Network Security Group |
Resource Group |
1-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period |
<service short name>-<context>-nsg |
profx-app-nsg |
| Network Security Group Rule |
Resource Group |
1-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period |
<descriptive context> |
sql-allow |
| Public IP Address |
Resource Group |
1-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period |
<vm or service name>-pip |
profx-sql1-vm1-pip |
| Load Balancer |
Resource Group |
1-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period |
<service or role>-lb |
profx-lb |
| Load Balanced Rules Config |
Load Balancer |
1-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period |
<descriptive context> |
http |
| Azure Application Gateway |
Resource Group |
1-80 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and period |
<service or role>-agw |
profx-agw |
| Traffic Manager Profile |
Resource Group |
1-63 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen, and period |
<descriptive context> |
app1 |
Containers
| Entity |
Scope |
Length |
Casing |
Valid Characters |
Suggested Pattern |
Example |
| Container Registry |
Global |
5-50 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric |
<service short name>registry |
app1registry |
Messaging
| Entity |
Scope |
Length |
Casing |
Valid Characters |
Suggested Pattern |
Example |
| Service Bus namespace |
Global |
6-50 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen; must start with a letter; see here for details. |
<service short name>-bus |
app1-bus |
| Event Hubs namespace |
Global |
6-50 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, hyphen; must start with a letter; must end with a letter or number |
<service>-ehns |
app1-ehns |
| Event hub |
Event Hubs namespace |
1-50 |
Insensitive |
Alphanumeric, period, hyphen, underscore. Must start and end with a letter or number. |
<service>-<role>-eh |
app1-orders-eh |