Authentication using Azure CLI

There are two ways in order to authenticate in Azure using Azure CLI:

• Interactive mode
• Service Principal mode

Interactive mode

az login

It allows you authenticate in Azure launching the Azure’s authentication page in a browser to manually provide the username and password.

Service Principal mode

az login --service-principal

It is ideal for scenarios used by automated tools. You will need to create one (if it does not exist yet) by either az ad sp create command or az ad sp create-for-rbac command, last giving the according permissions for the Azure resources. Instead of granting full access to those tools it is recommended use service principal with restrictive permissions. The parameter --service-principal must be provided with others to authenticate in that mode.