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Azure Dev Box is a managed service from Microsoft Azure that provides cloud-hosted, developer-ready workstations (virtual machines) designed specifically for software development. It allows developers to quickly spin up secure, pre-configured, high-performance development environments without worrying about configuring physical devices or maintaining local dev setups.

Key Features of Azure Dev Box:

• Organizations can set up custom images that include tools, libraries, and dependencies.


• Ensures consistency across developer environments.


• Developers can spin up Dev Boxes quickly without configuring physical machines.


• Multiple boxes can be created for different projects or branches.

Common Use Cases:

• Onboarding new developers quickly.


• Creating isolated, sandboxed environments for different projects.


• Ensuring consistent dev environments across teams.


• Supporting remote development securely.

Benefits for Different Roles:

• Platform Engineers: Can create dev box pools, manage security settings, network configurations, and organizational policies to ensure secure access to resources.


• Development Team Leads: Assist with creating and managing the developer experience by being assigned the DevCenter Project Admin role.


• Developers: Can self-serve one or more dev boxes on demand from the dev box pools enabled for a project, allowing them to work on multiple projects or tasks.

You can read more about Dev Box in Microsoft documentation https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/dev-box/

In this blog, we will be deploying the Dev Box and other related resources using Terraform. Below are the pre-requisites for Deploying the Dev Box.

Pre-Requisites:

• Azure Subscription


• Terraform installed locally or via Cloud Shell


• Azure CLI installed (and logged in)


• Dev Box preview access (Azure Dev Box must be enabled in your subscription)

We will use the below set of resources as part of this deployment:

• Resource Group


• Virtual Network and Subnet (for Dev Box connectivity)


• Network Connection (links to the VNet)


• Dev Center


• Project


• Dev Box Definition


• Dev Box Pool

Deploy the Dev Center and other network components to the ‘West Europe’ location.

# This Terraform script creates a Dev Center in Azure with a virtual network, subnet, and a Dev Box pool.
#Creating a Resource Group
resource “azurerm_resource_group” “resourceGroup” {
name = “devBox-resources”
location = “West Europe”
}

# Creating a Dev Center Resource
resource “azurerm_dev_center” “devCenter” {
name = “devCenterDC”
resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.name
location = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.location

identity {
type = “SystemAssigned”
}
}

# Creating a Virtual Network for Dev Center
resource “azurerm_virtual_network” “vnet” {
name = “devCenterVnet”
address_space = [“10.0.0.0/16”]
location = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.location
resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.name
}

# Creating a Subnet for Dev Center
resource “azurerm_subnet” “subnet” {
name = “devCenterSubnet”
resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.name
virtual_network_name = azurerm_virtual_network.vnet.name
address_prefixes = [“10.0.2.0/24”]
}

Create and attach Network Connection to the Dev Center and create Project and Dev Box.

# Creating Dev Center Network Connection
resource “azurerm_dev_center_network_connection” “devCenterNetworkCon” {
name = “devCenterNetworkCon”
resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.name
location = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.location
subnet_id = azurerm_subnet.subnet.id
domain_join_type = “AzureADJoin”
}

# Attaching the Network Connection to the Dev Center
resource “azurerm_dev_center_attached_network” “devCenterAttachedNetwrork” {
name = “devCenterAttachedNetwork”
dev_center_id = azurerm_dev_center.devCenter.id
network_connection_id = azurerm_dev_center_network_connection.devCenterNetworkCon.id
}

# Creating a Dev Center Project
resource “azurerm_dev_center_project” “devCenterProject” {
name = “devCenterProject”
resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.name
location = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.location
dev_center_id = azurerm_dev_center.devCenter.id
}

# Creating a Dev Box Definition
resource “azurerm_dev_center_dev_box_definition” “devCenterDevBoxDef” {
name = “devCenterDevBoxDef”
location = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.location
dev_center_id = azurerm_dev_center.devCenter.id
image_reference_id = “${azurerm_dev_center.devCenter.id}/galleries/default/images/microsoftvisualstudio_visualstudioplustools_vs-2022-ent-general-win10-m365-gen2”
sku_name = “general_i_8c32gb256ssd_v2”
}

# Creating a Dev Box Pool
resource “azurerm_dev_center_project_pool” “devCenterProjectPool” {
name = “devCenterProjectPool”
location = azurerm_resource_group.resourceGroup.location
dev_center_project_id = azurerm_dev_center_project.devCenterProject.id
dev_box_definition_name = azurerm_dev_center_dev_box_definition.devCenterDevBoxDef.name
local_administrator_enabled = true
dev_center_attached_network_name = azurerm_dev_center_attached_network.devCenterAttachedNetwrork.name
stop_on_disconnect_grace_period_minutes = 60
}

Azure Portal Output:

Note: In the upcoming articles we will deploy the catalogs and synchronize the catalogs to the GitHub repository.