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Quickstart: Create an Azure CDN profile and endpoint using Terraform

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Important

Azure CDN Standard from Microsoft (classic) will be retired on September 30, 2027. To avoid any service disruption, it is important that you migrate your Azure CDN Standard from Microsoft (classic) profiles to Azure Front Door Standard or Premium tier by September 30, 2027. For more information, see Azure CDN Standard from Microsoft (classic) retirement.

Azure CDN from Edgio will be retired on November 4, 2025. You must migrate your workload to Azure Front Door before this date to avoid service disruption. For more information, see Azure CDN from Edgio retirement FAQ.

This article shows how to use Terraform to create an Azure CDN profile and endpoint using Terraform.

Terraform enables the definition, preview, and deployment of cloud infrastructure. Using Terraform, you create configuration files using HCL syntax. The HCL syntax allows you to specify the cloud provider - such as Azure - and the elements that make up your cloud infrastructure. After you create your configuration files, you create an execution plan that allows you to preview your infrastructure changes before they're deployed. Once you verify the changes, you apply the execution plan to deploy the infrastructure.

In this article, you learn how to:

Prerequisites

Implement the Terraform code

Note

The sample code for this article is located in the Azure Terraform GitHub repo. You can view the log file containing the test results from current and previous versions of Terraform.

See more articles and sample code showing how to use Terraform to manage Azure resources

  1. Create a directory in which to test and run the sample Terraform code and make it the current directory.

  2. Create a file named main.tf and insert the following code:

    resource "random_pet" "rg_name" {
  prefix = var.resource_group_name_prefix
}

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "rg" {
  name     = random_pet.rg_name.id
  location = var.resource_group_location
}

resource "random_string" "aazurerm_cdn_profile_name" {
  length  = 13
  lower   = true
  numeric = false
  special = false
  upper   = false
}

resource "azurerm_cdn_profile" "profile" {
  name                = "profile-${random_string.azurerm_cdn_endpoint_name.result}"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  sku                 = var.cdn_sku
}

resource "random_string" "azurerm_cdn_endpoint_name" {
  length  = 13
  lower   = true
  numeric = false
  special = false
  upper   = false
}

resource "azurerm_cdn_endpoint" "endpoint" {
  name                          = "endpoint-${random_string.azurerm_cdn_endpoint_name.result}"
  profile_name                  = azurerm_cdn_profile.profile.name
  location                      = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  resource_group_name           = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  is_http_allowed               = true
  is_https_allowed              = true
  querystring_caching_behaviour = "IgnoreQueryString"
  is_compression_enabled        = true
  content_types_to_compress = [
    "application/eot",
    "application/font",
    "application/font-sfnt",
    "application/javascript",
    "application/json",
    "application/opentype",
    "application/otf",
    "application/pkcs7-mime",
    "application/truetype",
    "application/ttf",
    "application/vnd.ms-fontobject",
    "application/xhtml+xml",
    "application/xml",
    "application/xml+rss",
    "application/x-font-opentype",
    "application/x-font-truetype",
    "application/x-font-ttf",
    "application/x-httpd-cgi",
    "application/x-javascript",
    "application/x-mpegurl",
    "application/x-opentype",
    "application/x-otf",
    "application/x-perl",
    "application/x-ttf",
    "font/eot",
    "font/ttf",
    "font/otf",
    "font/opentype",
    "image/svg+xml",
    "text/css",
    "text/csv",
    "text/html",
    "text/javascript",
    "text/js",
    "text/plain",
    "text/richtext",
    "text/tab-separated-values",
    "text/xml",
    "text/x-script",
    "text/x-component",
    "text/x-java-source",
  ]

  origin {
    name      = "origin1"
    host_name = var.origin_url
  }
}

  3. Create a file named outputs.tf and insert the following code:

    output "resource_group_name" {
  value = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
}

output "cdn_profile_name" {
  value = azurerm_cdn_profile.profile.name
}

output "cdn_endpoint_endpoint_name" {
  value = azurerm_cdn_endpoint.endpoint.name
}

output "cdn_endpoint_fqdn" {
  value = azurerm_cdn_endpoint.endpoint.fqdn
}

  4. Create a file named providers.tf and insert the following code:

    terraform {
  required_version = ">=1.0"
  required_providers {
    azurerm = {
      source  = "hashicorp/azurerm"
      version = "~>3.0"
    }
    random = {
      source  = "hashicorp/random"
      version = "~>3.0"
    }
  }
}
provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
}

  5. Create a file named variables.tf and insert the following code:

    variable "resource_group_location" {
  type        = string
  description = "Location for all resources."
  default     = "eastus"
}

variable "resource_group_name_prefix" {
  type        = string
  description = "Prefix of the resource group name that's combined with a random ID so name is unique in your Azure subscription."
  default     = "rg"
}

variable "origin_url" {
  type        = string
  description = "Url of the origin."
  default     = "www.contoso.com"
}

variable "cdn_sku" {
  type        = string
  description = "CDN SKU names."
  default     = "Standard_Microsoft"
  validation {
    condition     = contains(["Standard_Akamai", "Standard_Microsoft", "Standard_Verizon", "Premium_Verizon"], var.cdn_sku)
    error_message = "The cdn_sku must be one of the following: Standard_Akamai, Standard_Microsoft, Standard_Verizon, Premium_Verizon."
  }
}

Initialize Terraform

Run terraform init to initialize the Terraform deployment. This command downloads the Azure provider required to manage your Azure resources.

terraform init -upgrade

Key points:

  • The -upgrade parameter upgrades the necessary provider plugins to the newest version that complies with the configuration's version constraints.

Create a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform plan to create an execution plan.

terraform plan -out main.tfplan

Key points:

  • The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
  • The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

Apply a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan to your cloud infrastructure.

terraform apply main.tfplan

Key points:

  • The example terraform apply command assumes you previously ran terraform plan -out main.tfplan.
  • If you specified a different filename for the -out parameter, use that same filename in the call to terraform apply.
  • If you didn't use the -out parameter, call terraform apply without any parameters.

Verify the results

  1. Get the Azure resource group name in which the Azure CDN profile and endpoint were created.

    resource_group_name=$(terraform output -raw resource_group_name)

  2. Get the CDN profile name.

    cdn_profile_name=$(terraform output -raw cdn_profile_name)

  3. Get the CDN endpoint name.

    cdn_endpoint_endpoint_name=$(terraform output -raw cdn_endpoint_endpoint_name)

  4. Run az cdn custom-domain show to show details of the custom domain you created in this article.

    az cdn endpoint show --resource-group $resource_group_name \
                     --profile-name $cdn_profile_name \
                     --name $cdn_endpoint_endpoint_name

Clean up resources

When you no longer need the resources created via Terraform, do the following steps:

  1. Run terraform plan and specify the destroy flag.

    terraform plan -destroy -out main.destroy.tfplan

    Key points:

    • The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
    • The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

  2. Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan.

    terraform apply main.destroy.tfplan

Troubleshoot Terraform on Azure

Troubleshoot common problems when using Terraform on Azure

Next steps

Tutorial: Use CDN to serve static content from a web app