Glossary
Search Azure terms
Open a clear definition, then continue into exam context, architecture, commands, operational examples, common mistakes, and related concepts.
Search all
Commands
Learning guides
Concept graph
Compare
Search-first Azure knowledge base
Term results
Search for a term or click a category. Results render only after you ask for them, so the glossary does not dump every available term on first load. Each result includes Quick peek and Open full term page actions.
Start with a search or a category.
Try managed identity , resource group , az group , private endpoint , or click Databases to load all database-related terms.
Showing 35 matching terms.
Management and Governance
premium
Azure Resource Graph
Azure Resource Graph is the fast inventory search engine for Azure resources. Microsoft Learn anchors this term in What is Azure Resource Graph?, but this field-manual definition is intentionally wider than an older short glossary entry because the page must teach what to inspect, what can break, who owns the decision, and which evidence proves the Azure environment is behaving as intended. In field use, start with the technical boundary: Technically, Azure Resource Graph extends Azure Resource Management by maintaining queryable resource data across the subscriptions available to the signed-in.
Fleet discovery
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: ARG
Quick peek
Open full term page
Migration
premium
Discovery appliance
A discovery appliance is the Azure Migrate appliance that discovers source servers and sends configuration, dependency, and performance metadata to Azure for migration assessment.
Discovery and assessment
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Azure Migrate appliance, migration discovery appliance, assessment appliance, server discovery appliance
Quick peek
Open full term page
Storage
premium
Azure Storage Discovery
Azure Storage Discovery is a fully managed service that provides enterprise-wide visibility into Azure Blob Storage and Azure Data Lake Storage estates for analysis, optimization, security, and operations.
Storage platform
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
Quick peek
Open full term page
Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Databricks schema
A Unity Catalog namespace under a catalog that groups tables, views, volumes, models, functions, and permissions.
Databricks
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: Unity Catalog schema, Databricks database schema, schema in Unity Catalog
Quick peek
Open full term page
Containers
premium
Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure Kubernetes Service is Azure’s managed Kubernetes service for deploying, scaling, and operating containerized applications while Azure manages much of the cluster control plane.
Managed Kubernetes
advanced
6 commands
Aliases: AKS, managed Kubernetes
Quick peek
Open full term page
Analytics
premium
Azure Databricks Unity Catalog
A unified governance layer in Azure Databricks for data and AI assets, including catalogs, schemas, tables, volumes, models, privileges, and lineage.
Data governance
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Unity Catalog
Quick peek
Open full term page
Databases
premium
Azure SQL elastic job
Azure SQL elastic jobs schedule and run Transact-SQL scripts across one or many Azure SQL databases, including target groups across servers, pools, and subscriptions.
Azure SQL Database
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Elastic Jobs, Azure SQL elastic job, SQL elastic job agent, elastic job agent, elastic jobs
Quick peek
Open full term page
Management and Governance
premium
Policy remediation
Policy remediation is Azure Policy’s controlled repair job for resources that already exist. A deny policy can stop a bad new deployment, but it cannot automatically fix old resources. Remediation is for policies with modify or deployIfNotExists effects, such as adding required tags or deploying missing diagnostic settings. You create a remediation task, Azure finds the affected resources, and the assignment’s managed identity performs the configured change. It is governance automation, but it still needs careful scope, permission, and result review.
Azure Policy
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Policy remediation, policy-remediation
Quick peek
Open full term page
Management and Governance
premium
Application tag
An application tag is a resource tag key-value pair that identifies the application, product, workload, or service associated with an Azure resource.
Tags and naming
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: application tag
Quick peek
Open full term page
Compute
premium
Automatic OS image upgrade
Automatic OS image upgrade lets Azure update the operating system image used by a virtual machine scale set as new image versions are published. In plain terms, instead of manually replacing every instance, the scale set can roll newer OS disks across the fleet in batches. It helps keep Windows and Linux scale-out workers current. The.
Virtual Machines
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: VMSS automatic OS image upgrade, automatic OS upgrade, scale set automatic image upgrade, enable-auto-os-upgrade
Quick peek
Open full term page
Containers
premium
Dapr
Dapr is a distributed application runtime that gives microservices common building-block APIs for service invocation, pub/sub, bindings, state, workflows, and observability.
Distributed applications
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Dapr, DAPR
Quick peek
Open full term page
Containers
premium
Dapr service invocation
Dapr service invocation is a Dapr building block for calling another application by Dapr app ID instead of hard-coding its network address in the caller.
Azure Container Apps
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Dapr service invocation, DAPR service invocation
Quick peek
Open full term page
Internet of Things
premium
Device Provisioning Service
Device Provisioning Service is an Azure IoT helper service that enables zero-touch, just-in-time provisioning of devices to one or more linked IoT hubs using enrollments and allocation policies.
IoT provisioning
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service, IoT DPS, DPS, zero-touch device provisioning
Quick peek
Open full term page
Internet of Things
premium
Device twin
A device twin is the IoT Hub JSON document that stores device metadata, tags, desired properties, and reported properties so cloud applications and devices can synchronize configuration and state.
Device state
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: IoT Hub device twin, device twin properties, twin desired properties, twin reported properties
Quick peek
Open full term page
Migration
premium
Migration project
Migration project is a project container that organizes Azure Migrate discovery, assessment, dependency analysis, and migration tracking for a group of workloads. Teams should manage it with clear ownership, monitoring, rollback evidence, and production change discipline.
Azure Migrate
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: Azure Migrate project, migration workspace, Migrate project
Quick peek
Open full term page
Monitoring and Observability
premium
Application map
Application Map is an Application Insights view that visualizes application components and dependencies using telemetry, helping teams identify bottlenecks and failure hotspots.
Application Insights
fundamentals
2 commands
Aliases: application map
Quick peek
Open full term page
Migration
premium
Assessment
An assessment is the structured review that estimates whether a workload is ready to move to Azure, what it might cost, and what target configuration makes sense. In Azure Migrate, assessments help teams compare current servers, databases, applications, and dependencies against Azure options before migration begins. It is not a final migration plan by.
Migration planning
fundamentals
2 commands
Aliases: Azure Migrate assessment, Migration assessment, Server assessment, Application assessment
Quick peek
Open full term page
Analytics
verified
OPENROWSET in Synapse
In Azure Synapse serverless SQL pool, OPENROWSET with BULK reads files in Azure Storage and returns them as rows in a query. It can infer or use external data sources, supports formats such as CSV, Parquet, and Delta, and is not supported in dedicated SQL pools.
Synapse Analytics
intermediate
7 commands
Aliases: Synapse OPENROWSET, OPENROWSET serverless SQL pool, serverless SQL OPENROWSET, OPENROWSET BULK in Synapse, Synapse lake query
Quick peek
Open full term page
Management and Governance
verified
Required tag policy
A required tag policy uses Azure Policy to enforce tagging rules so resources are created with expected organizational tags. Depending on the definition and effect, it can deny noncompliant deployments, audit missing tags, modify requests, or remediate existing resources with standardized tag values.
Azure Policy
intermediate
6 commands
Aliases: require tag policy, mandatory tag policy, Azure Policy tag enforcement, tag governance policy, required tag and value policy
Quick peek
Open full term page
Containers
field-manual-complete
AKS node image
An AKS node image is the AKS-tested operating system image used by cluster nodes. Microsoft regularly publishes updated node images with security fixes, component updates, and bug fixes, and teams can upgrade node images separately from Kubernetes minor version upgrades.
AKS operations
Intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: AKS node image, aks-node-image, aks-cluster, aks-node, node-pool, aks-cluster-upgrade, aks-maintenance-window, kubernetes-version, aks-linux-node-pool, aks-windows-node-pool, node-image-upgrade, automatic-os-image-upgrade
Quick peek
Open full term page
Management and Governance
verified
Resource drift
Resource drift is the gap between the intended Azure configuration in code, policy, or design and the resource state that actually exists after manual changes or unmanaged deployments.
Operational hygiene
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure resource drift, infrastructure drift, configuration drift, IaC drift, deployment drift
Quick peek
Open full term page
Management and Governance
field-manual-complete
Subscription policy assignment
A subscription policy assignment is a rule or initiative applied to an entire Azure subscription. Instead of assigning the policy one resource group at a time, the assignment covers all resource groups and resources under that subscription unless exclusions or exemptions narrow it. It can audit, deny, append, modify, or deploy supporting settings depending on the policy effect. Think of it as a subscription-wide guardrail with parameters, scope, enforcement mode, and compliance reporting. It is powerful because it is broad, so it deserves careful review before production use.
Azure Policy
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: subscription scoped policy assignment, Azure Policy assignment at subscription scope, subscription governance assignment
Quick peek
Open full term page
Compute
field-manual-complete
Uniform orchestration
Uniform orchestration is a Virtual Machine Scale Sets mode where Azure creates and manages a set of mostly identical VM instances from one scale set model. It is suited to stateless, homogeneous fleets that need centralized scaling, upgrades, health, and instance management through the VMSS resource.
Virtual Machine Scale Sets
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: VMSS Uniform orchestration, uniform VM scale set, Virtual Machine Scale Sets Uniform mode, orchestration mode Uniform
Quick peek
Open full term page
Analytics
field-manual-complete
Unity Catalog
Unity Catalog is Azure Databricks’ unified governance layer for data and AI assets. It centralizes access control, auditing, lineage, discovery, and classification across workspaces so teams can govern tables, views, volumes, functions, and models through a shared metastore and three-level namespace.
Azure Databricks
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Databricks Unity Catalog, Azure Databricks Unity Catalog, unified governance layer, Unity Catalog metastore
Quick peek
Open full term page
Analytics
field-manual-complete
Unity Catalog catalog
A Unity Catalog catalog is the top level of the Unity Catalog three-level namespace. It groups schemas and their tables, views, volumes, functions, and models under a governance boundary, with permissions, workspace bindings, and ownership patterns that help separate domains, environments, or data products.
Azure Databricks
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: catalog in Unity Catalog, Databricks catalog, UC catalog, catalog.schema.table namespace
Quick peek
Open full term page
Compute
field-manual-complete
Virtual machine scale set
A managed group of VM instances that can scale and update as a fleet.
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: VM scale set, Azure VMSS, Virtual Machine Scale Set, scale set, virtual machine scale set
Quick peek
Open full term page
Compute
verified
VM scale set instance
A VM scale set instance is an individual virtual machine that belongs to an Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set. Operators can inspect, restart, reimage, update, delete, or run commands against specific instances while the scale set manages the broader group model.
Virtual Machine Scale Sets
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: VM scale set instance, vm scale set instance
Quick peek
Open full term page
Compute
verified
VM user-assigned identity
VM user-assigned identity is a reusable managed identity resource attached to a virtual machine so software on that VM can request Microsoft Entra tokens without stored credentials. Its lifecycle and permissions are managed separately from the VM across rebuilds and fleets.
Virtual Machines
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: VM user-assigned managed identity, user-assigned managed identity for virtual machines, virtual machine user-assigned identity, managed identity attached to VM
Quick peek
Open full term page
Analytics
top-250-pre130-priority-upgraded
Databricks Unity Catalog
Databricks Unity Catalog is the centralized governance layer in Azure Databricks for managing data and AI asset metadata, permissions, lineage, discovery, and workspace access relationships.
Databricks
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Unity Catalog in Azure Databricks, Azure Databricks Unity Catalog, governed catalog, Databricks data governance
Quick peek
Open full term page
Compute
complete
Specialized image
Microsoft Learn describes a specialized image in Azure Compute Gallery as an image from a VM that has not been generalized. It retains machine-specific information and accounts, can boot faster, and creates VMs with limitations such as no osProfile. in practice.
Disks and images
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Compute Gallery specialized image, stateful VM image, specialized VM image, non-generalized image
Quick peek
Open full term page
Compute
complete
Spot eviction
Microsoft Learn explains that Azure Spot Virtual Machines can be stopped when Azure needs capacity for pay-as-you-go workloads or when the Spot price exceeds the maximum price you set. The eviction policy determines whether the VM is deallocated or deleted.
Virtual Machines
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Spot eviction, spot eviction, spot-eviction
Quick peek
Open full term page
Databases
complete
SQL elastic job
A SQL elastic job is a way to run the same database work across many Azure SQL databases without logging into each one.
Azure SQL
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure SQL elastic job, Elastic Jobs, SQL job agent, database fleet job
Quick peek
Open full term page
AI and Machine Learning
field-manual-ready
Model catalog
A model catalog is a discovery experience for finding AI models by provider, task, modality, capability, benchmark, or deployment option.
Microsoft Foundry
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
Quick peek
Open full term page
Compute
template-specs-upgraded
Scale set capacity
Microsoft Learn describes Virtual Machine Scale Set capacity as the instance count declared for a scale set. Operators can manually change sku.capacity or let autoscale rules adjust it, but each capacity decision affects compute cost, load-balancer health, zone distribution, and whether enough VM instances exist to serve traffic.
Virtual Machines
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: VMSS capacity, Virtual Machine Scale Set capacity, scale set instance count, sku.capacity, VMSS instance count
Quick peek
Open full term page
Compute
template-specs-upgraded
Scale set upgrade policy
Microsoft Learn explains that a Virtual Machine Scale Set upgrade policy controls how model changes reach individual VM instances. Manual, automatic, and rolling modes affect when instances receive image, SKU, disk, extension, or zone changes, and rolling policies help production fleets update in batches while preserving serving capacity.
Virtual Machines
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: VMSS upgrade policy, Virtual Machine Scale Set upgrade policy, upgradePolicy.mode, rolling upgrade policy, manual upgrade policy, automatic upgrade policy
Quick peek
Open full term page
No glossary terms matched that search.
Try a service name, acronym, command group, or category such as RBAC , az group , App Service , Application Insights , Databases , or Azure AI Search .
Clear filters and show matches
Reset search