Concepts

When developing an Azure solution using AVM modules, there are several aspects to consider. This page covers important concepts and provides guidance the technical decisions. Each concept/topic referenced here will be further detailed in the corresponding Bicep or Terraform specific guidance.

Language-agnostic concepts

Topics/concepts that are relevant and applicable for both Bicep and Terraform.

Module Sourcing

Public Registry

Leveraging the public registries (i.e., the Bicep Public Registry or the Terraform Public Registry) is the most common and recommended approach.

This allows you to leverage the latest and greatest features of the AVM modules, as well as the latest security updates. While there aren’t any prerequisites for using the public registry - no extra software component or service needs to be installed and no configuration is needed - the client machine the deployment is initiated from will need to have access to the public registry.

Private Registry (synced)

A private registry - that is hosted in your own environment - can store modules originating from the public registry. Using a private registry still grants you the latest version of AVM modules while allowing you to review each version of each module before admitting them to your private registry. You also have control over who can access your own private registry. Note that using a private registry means that you’re still using each module as is, without making any changes.

Inner-sourcing

Inner-sourcing AVM means maintaining your own, synchronized copy of AVM modules in your own internal private registry, repositories or other storage option. Customers normally look to inner-source AVM modules when they have strict security and compliance requirements, or when they want to publish their own lightly wrapped versions of the modules to meet their specific needs; for example changing some allowed or default values for parameter or variable inputs.

This is a more complex approach and requires more effort to maintain, but it can be beneficial in certain scenarios, however, it should not be the default approach as it can lead to a lot of overhead and maintenance and requires significant skills and resources to set up and maintain.

There are many ways to approach inner-sourcing AVM modules for both Bicep and Terraform. The AVM team will be publishing guidance on this topic, based on customer experience and learnings.