Your Azure Lab Toolkit: Azure CLI, PowerShell, Cloud Shell

You install the tools, sign in, set defaults, create a tagged resource group, find it two ways, then delete it. Run everything in Windows PowerShell unless a step says otherwise.

1Install the Azure CLI

Run this:

winget install --exact --id Microsoft.AzureCLI

When it finishes, close PowerShell and open a new window. The installer adds az to your PATH, but windows that were already open don’t see the change.

In the new window, run this:

Set-Location C:\azure-lab
az version

You should see something like this:

{
  "azure-cli": "2.91.0",
  "azure-cli-core": "2.91.0",
  "azure-cli-telemetry": "1.1.0",
  "extensions": {}
}

2Sign in

Run this:

az login

A Windows sign-in window opens. Choose the account from Lesson 2 and approve the MFA prompt. Back in PowerShell, the CLI lists your subscriptions and asks you to pick one.

Press Enter to keep the one marked with *.

Then run this:

az account show --query "{subscription:name, user:user.name, tenant:tenantId}" -o table

You should see something like this:

Subscription          User                   Tenant
--------------------  ---------------------  ------------------------------------
Azure subscription 1  priya.k@outlook.com    9a8b7c6d-1e2f-4a3b-8c9d-0e1f2a3b4c5d

3Set your defaults

Run this:

az configure --defaults location=centralindia
az configure --list-defaults -o table

You should see something like this:

Name      Source                              Value
--------  ----------------------------------  ------------
location  C:\Users\priya\.azure\config        centralindia

Now commands that need a location use Central India unless you say otherwise. We don’t set a default resource group: each lab has its own, and a forgotten default group is a classic way to create things in the wrong place.

4Create a tagged resource group

A resource group is a folder for related resources. Deleting the folder deletes everything inside it, which makes cleanup easy.

Run this:

az group create --name rg-saat-l03 --tags course=saatvedha-azure lesson=03 owner="Priya K" -o table

You should see something like this:

Location      Name
------------  -----------
centralindia  rg-saat-l03

Check the tags:

az group show --name rg-saat-l03 --query tags

You should see something like this:

{
  "course": "saatvedha-azure",
  "lesson": "03",
  "owner": "Priya K"
}

5Find it with a query

Run this:

az group list --tag course=saatvedha-azure --query "[].{name:name, lesson:tags.lesson, location:location}" -o table

You should see something like this:

Name         Lesson    Location
-----------  --------  ------------
rg-saat-l03  03        centralindia

--tag asks Azure to filter on the server side. --query then picks only the fields you want. You’ll use this pattern in almost every lab.

6Do the same with Az PowerShell

Run this (it takes a few minutes the first time):

Install-Module Az.Accounts, Az.Resources -Scope CurrentUser -Repository PSGallery -Force
Connect-AzAccount
Get-AzResourceGroup -Tag @{ course = 'saatvedha-azure' } | Select-Object ResourceGroupName, Location

If PowerShell asks to install the NuGet provider, answer Y. Connect-AzAccount opens the same sign-in window, then may ask you to choose a subscription.

You should see something like this at the end:

ResourceGroupName Location
----------------- --------
rg-saat-l03       centralindia

Same group, same answer, different tool. The CLI gives you text and JSON; Az PowerShell gives you objects you can pipe into other cmdlets.

7Add VS Code and the Bicep tools

Run this:

winget install --exact --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode
az bicep install
az bicep version

You should see something like this:

Bicep CLI version 0.48.1 (cec7951cf6)

Open VS Code once, go to Extensions, and install Bicep (by Microsoft). You’ll start using it in Lesson 41; installing it now saves time later.

8Save the cleanup checker you’ll use in every lab

Paste this whole block:

@'
param([string]$Lesson)
$groups = az group list --tag course=saatvedha-azure --query "[].{name:name, lesson:tags.lesson, location:location}" -o json | ConvertFrom-Json
$items = az resource list --tag course=saatvedha-azure --query "[].{name:name, type:type, group:resourceGroup, lesson:tags.lesson}" -o json | ConvertFrom-Json
if ($Lesson) {
    $groups = $groups | Where-Object lesson -eq $Lesson
    $items = $items | Where-Object lesson -eq $Lesson
}
if (-not $groups -and -not $items) { 'Nothing tagged course=saatvedha-azure is left.'; return }
if ($groups) { 'Resource groups:'; $groups | Format-Table -AutoSize | Out-String -Width 200 }
if ($items) { 'Resources:'; $items | Format-Table -AutoSize | Out-String -Width 200 }
'@ | Set-Content C:\azure-lab\Find-LabResources.ps1
C:\azure-lab\Find-LabResources.ps1

You should see something like this:

Resource groups:

name        lesson location
----        ------ --------
rg-saat-l03 03     centralindia

The group shows up, but no resources, because it’s empty. If Windows says scripts are disabled, run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, then try again.

9Clean up

Run this:

az group delete --name rg-saat-l03 --yes
C:\azure-lab\Find-LabResources.ps1

You should see this:

Nothing tagged course=saatvedha-azure is left.

✅ Checkpoint: az version and Get-AzResourceGroup both work, your default location is centralindia, and Find-LabResources.ps1 says nothing is left.