create-sp-using-azure-cli.md

Sign into Azure and set your subscription

First, use the following steps to authenticate using the Azure CLI.

1. Optionally, log out and delete some authentication files to remove any lingering credentials:

   az logout
   rm ~/.azure/accessTokens.json
   rm ~/.azure/azureProfile.json
   

2. Sign into your Azure account by using the Azure CLI:

   az login
   

   Follow the instructions to complete the sign-in process.

3. List your subscriptions:

   az account list
   

   Azure will return a list of your subscriptions. Copy the id for the subscription that you want to use; for example:

   [
     {
       "cloudName": "AzureCloud",
       "id": "ssssssss-ssss-ssss-ssss-ssssssssssss",
       "name": "Converted Windows Azure MSDN - Visual Studio Ultimate",
       "state": "Enabled",
       "tenantId": "tttttttt-tttt-tttt-tttt-tttttttttttt",
       "user": {
         "name": "contoso@microsoft.com",
         "type": "user"
       }
     }
   ]

4. Specify the GUID for the subscription you want to use with Azure; for example:

   az account set -s ssssssss-ssss-ssss-ssss-ssssssssssss
   

Create a service principal for use in by your app

Microsoft Entra ID service principals provide access to Azure resources within your subscription. You can think of a service principal as a user identity for a service. "Service" is any application, service, or platform, including the sample app built in this tutorial, that needs to access Azure resources. You can configure a service principal with access rights scoped only to those resources you specify. Then, configure your application or service to use the service principal's credentials to access those resources.

Create a service principal with this command.

az ad sp create-for-rbac --name contososp

The value of the name option must be unique within your subscription. Save aside the values returned from the command for use later in the tutorial. The return JSON will look something like the following.

{
  "appId": "sample-app-id",
  "displayName": "ejbcontososp",
  "name": "http://ejbcontososp",
  "password": "sample-password",
  "tenant": "sample-tenant"
}