ARM template vs Azure SDK feature compatibility

Question

I'm looking for any gaps in the support for operations on Azure resources via the Azure SDK (java) vs. ARM templates.

So far, we've only found that blobs/queues/tables cannot be managed by ARM, while the containing StorageAccount can be. No documentation that calls out the differences either.

I prefer to use ARM templates as they provide atomicity of create and update across resources, provided they support all or most of the functionality.

Resources we're interested in are mostly IAAS-ish resources - Virtual network, security groups, subnets et al, LBs, storage artifacts, VM instances, DNS, etc.

Need this for basic create/delete operations and frequent update operations (eg patch VM images, modify DNS entries, move the ENI from one VM to another, etc).

Answer 1

Firstly, Template only supports ARM mode. Azure SDK supports ARM mode and asm mode.

Second, with template you could define a resource but you could not operation the resource, like start, stop a VM or a web app.

If you just want to deploy resources to Azure, I suggest you could select template, it is more easy for you to do it. SDK is more suitable for developer, Azure provides powerful API . You could manage your Azure resources and integrate them to your service.

Update:

If you only want to create or modify resources in Azure. Template is a more suitable option. Template supports more resources. Java SDK supports API is here . Template supports resource is here . Click Reference .

Note: You could not use template to delete a resource.