How to deploy Azure Infrastructure Visually

Introduction

Deploying Azure infrastructure traditionally involves writing Terraform HCL manually, managing state files, and troubleshooting complex errors. CloudForge changes that — you design your architecture visually, and the platform automatically generates and deploys the infrastructure code. This guide walks you through deploying real Azure infrastructure using CloudForge's AI-powered canvas in under 10 minutes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• A CloudForge account (free tier is sufficient)
• An Azure subscription
• An Azure Service Principal with Contributor access

Step 1: Connect Your Azure Subscription

Navigate to Settings → Cloud Connections, click Add Connection, and select Azure. Enter the required details:

• Subscription ID
• Tenant ID
• Client ID (Service Principal App ID)
• Client Secret

Click Test Connection — a green checkmark confirms success — then save. CloudForge encrypts credentials at rest and never stores them in plain text.

Step 2: Open the Architecture Canvas

Go to Architect in the top navigation. The left panel contains Azure resources grouped by category:

• Compute — VMs, App Services, Container Apps, AKS
• Networking — VNets, Subnets, Load Balancers, Application Gateways
• Storage — Blob Storage, Azure Files, Managed Disks
• Database — Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL Flexible Server
• Security — Key Vault, Managed Identity

Step 3: Design Your Architecture Visually

Drag components onto the canvas and connect them by drawing arrows. CloudForge automatically infers relationships — for example, connecting an App Service to a SQL database configures connection strings and firewall rules.

For this example, create a simple web app architecture by adding:

• A Resource Group
• An App Service Plan
• An App Service (Web App) connected to the plan
• An Azure SQL Database connected to the web app
• A Key Vault connected to the web app

Double-click any component to configure properties like SKU, region, and name.

Step 4: Generate Terraform Code

Click Generate Code. CloudForge AI analyses your diagram and produces production-ready Terraform (HCL), including:

• provider "azurerm" with feature flags
• Resource blocks with sensible defaults
• Outputs for resource IDs and connection strings
• Optional remote backend configuration

You can review and edit the generated code before deployment.

Step 5: Deploy to Azure

Click Deploy, select your Azure connection, choose an environment (dev, staging, or prod), and click Run Deployment. The deployment flow includes:

1. terraform init — downloads the provider
2. terraform plan — previews changes
3. An approval gate for confirmation
4. terraform apply — provisions resources

If any error occurs, CloudForge's self-healing capability kicks in — it analyses the issue, patches the Terraform, retries the deployment, and shows exactly what changed and why.

Step 6: Verify Your Deployment

Once you see [DONE] in the deployment stream, your resources are live. You can:

• Open the Azure Portal to view resources
• Click View Code anytime to inspect the Terraform
• Run incremental deployments as you update the diagram

Why Visual Infrastructure Deployment Matters

Writing Terraform manually is often error-prone, slow, and difficult for teams without deep infrastructure expertise. CloudForge bridges this gap by combining visual design with AI-driven automation. Key benefits:

• Faster iteration — diagram changes instantly reflect in code
• Fewer errors — AI validation catches issues before deploy
• Self-healing deployments — automatic retries with root-cause analysis
• Full audit trail — every deployment is logged and traceable

Next Steps

Extend your architecture further by:

• Deploying an AKS cluster with ACR
• Exploring multi-resource group architectures
• Setting up CI/CD pipelines triggered by Git pushes

CloudForge is free to get started — sign up and deploy your first Azure resource in minutes.