Quickstart: Create an Azure portal dashboard with Azure CLI

A dashboard in the Azure portal is a focused and organized view of your cloud resources. This quickstart shows how to use Azure CLI to create a dashboard. The example dashboard shows the performance of a virtual machine (VM), along with some static information and links.

In addition to the prerequisites below, you'll need an Azure account with an active subscription. Create a trial subscription.

• If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.

  • If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.

  • When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.

  • Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

• If you have multiple Azure subscriptions, choose the appropriate subscription in which to bill the resources. Select a subscription by using the az account set command:

  az account set --subscription 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
  

• Create an Azure resource group by using the az group create command (or use an existing resource group):

  az group create --name myResourceGroup --location chinaeast
  

The example dashboard requires a virtual machine. If you have a VM already, you can update your template to use that VM. Otherwise, you can create an example VM to use in this dashboard by using the az vm create command:

az vm create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myVM1 --image win2016datacenter \
   --admin-username azureuser --admin-password 1StrongPassword$

The deployment starts and typically takes a few minutes to complete.

Since Azure dashboards are resources, they can be represented as JSON. For more information, see The structure of Azure dashboards.

Download the file portal-dashboard-template-testvm.json.

Then, customize the downloaded template file by changing the following to your values:

• <subscriptionID>: Your subscription
• <rgName>: Resource group, for example myResourceGroup
• <vmName>: Virtual machine name, for example myVM1
• <dashboardTitle>: Dashboard title, for example Simple VM Dashboard
• <location>: Your Azure region, for example chinaeast

For more information, see Microsoft portal dashboards template reference.

You can now deploy the template from within Azure CLI.

1. Run the az portal dashboard create command to deploy the template:

   az portal dashboard create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name 'Simple VM Dashboard' \
      --input-path portal-dashboard-template-testvm.json --location chinaeast
   

2. Check that the dashboard was created successfully by running the az portal dashboard show command:

   az portal dashboard show --resource-group myResourceGroup --name 'Simple VM Dashboard'
   

To see all the dashboards for the current subscription, use az portal dashboard list:

az portal dashboard list

You can also see all the dashboards for a specific resource group:

az portal dashboard list --resource-group myResourceGroup

To update a dashboard, use the az portal dashboard update command:

az portal dashboard update --resource-group myResourceGroup --name 'Simple VM Dashboard' \
   --input-path portal-dashboard-template-testvm.json --location chinaeast

Verify that you can see data about your virtual machine in the Azure portal dashboard.

1. In the Azure portal menu, select Dashboard.

   

2. On the dashboard page, select Simple VM Dashboard.

   

3. Review the dashboard, which should look similar to the one shown here. While some of the content is static, there are also charts that show the performance of the VM you created at the beginning.

   

To remove the virtual machine and associated dashboard that you created, delete the resource group that contains them.

az group delete --name myResourceGroup

For more information about Azure CLI commands for dashboards, see: