Setup an Azure Bicep Dev Environment

“Everything is going to be connected to cloud and data… all of this will be mediated by software.”
- Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

Setting Up an Azure Bicep Developer Environment

Azure Bicep was announced at Ignite 2020. Bicep is Microsoft’s (DSL) Domain-Specific Language that maps 1-to-1 with (ARM) Azure Resource Manager templates. Over the years, ARM templates have become increasingly complex and burdensome. Bicep is Microsoft’s answer to this problem.

Resources Used

Tasks

• Install Bicep extension for Visual Studio Code
• Install Azure CLI
• Verify Bicep developer environment requirements met

Install the Bicep Extension for VSCode

Open VSCode and open Extensions. Search for bicep.

VSCode Bicep Extension search results

Next, click Install.

VSCode Bicep Extension install button

Done.

Install the Azure CLI*

In the past, the Bicep CLI was separate from the Azure CLI. Microsoft has made things easier. Per the documentation, “Azure CLI automatically installs the Bicep CLI when a command is executed that needs it.”

Open the link to the MSI for the latest version of the Azure CLI:

Azure CLI MSI Installer

Choose the release for your system, most likely the 64-bit option.

Azure CLI MSI Installer

Once the installer is downloaded, open and click through (Next, Accept EULA, Install, Finish) the installation.

Done.

Verify Everything Works

Verify the Azure CLI was installed correctly. Open Powershell and run the az --version command.

Checking the Azure CLI version

Now, if we try and verify our Bicep version, we get something like this…

Azure Bicep CLI version error

Remember, the “Azure CLI automatically installs the Bicep CLI when a command is executed that needs it.” We haven’t run any commands that would trigger the install of the Bicep CLI. The prompt says to run az bicep install. Okay.

Running Azure Bicep CLI install

Azure Bicep CLI install finished

And running az bicep version is successful this time.

Checking Azure Bicep version again

To make sure you have the latest Bicep version you can use the az bicep upgrade command.

Tasks

• Install Bicep extension for Visual Studio Code
• Install Azure CLI
• Verify bicep developer environment requirements met

And that’s it, all of the Bicep development environment requirements have been met!

Resources used in this post

1. Microsoft - Bicep Overview
2. Cloud with Chris - Introduction to Project Bicep
3. Getting Started with Azure Bicep
4. Microsoft - Install Azure CLI on Windows