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Identity
verified
Workload identity
A workload identity is an identity assigned to software, such as an application, service, script, or container, so it can authenticate to Microsoft Entra protected resources. In Azure, examples include app registrations, service principals, managed identities, and federated workload identities.
Workload identity
fundamentals
6 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Identity
verified
Workload identity federation
Workload identity federation lets an external workload exchange a trusted token for Microsoft Entra access tokens without storing long-lived secrets. Microsoft Entra validates the issuer, subject, and audience in a federated credential, then allows automation such as GitHub Actions, Kubernetes, or other platforms to access protected resources.
Identity operations
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Federated workload identity, OIDC federation for workloads, Federated identity credential, Secretless workload authentication
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Containers
field-manual-complete
AKS workload identity
AKS workload identity lets a pod sign in to Azure as an approved identity without storing a password, client secret, or long-lived key inside the container. You connect a Kubernetes service account to a Microsoft Entra application or managed identity through federation. When the pod runs, Azure trusts the service account token from the cluster OIDC issuer and issues access tokens for allowed resources. The result is cleaner secret handling for applications running in AKS.
AKS Identity
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Microsoft Entra Workload ID for AKS, pod workload identity, AKS OIDC federation
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Identity
premium
Federated identity credential
A Federated identity credential is a Microsoft Entra credential object that defines the issuer, subject, and audience trusted for workload identity federation. Teams use it to allow a specific external workload identity to authenticate as an Entra application or user-assigned managed identity without storing a client secret or certificate. It is not a role assignment, token issued by Azure, user sign-in method, broad trust for every workflow in a repository, or evidence that the workload can access resources without RBAC.
Workload identity
intermediate
6 commands
Aliases: Microsoft Entra federated identity credential, FIC, workload identity credential, OIDC federation credential
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Containers
premium
Kubelet identity
Kubelet identity controls how AKS nodes authenticate to Azure resources for node-level tasks, especially pulling container images from registries without embedded secrets. Teams see it in aks identity profile, node pools. It is not cluster control-plane identity, workload identity, pod managed identity, service account token, kubeconfig credential, or container registry admin user; confusing them can create image pull failures, overbroad registry access. Use the term when reviewing access, monitoring, cost, recovery, or performance. It keeps architects, operators, security reviewers, and support teams focused on the same setting, resource, or behavior.
AKS identity
Intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: AKS kubelet identity, node pool kubelet identity, AKS node managed identity, identityProfile kubeletidentity
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Identity
premium
Managed identity
A managed identity is an automatically managed Microsoft Entra identity assigned to a supported Azure resource. It lets workloads authenticate to services that support Microsoft Entra authentication without storing passwords, certificates, or client secrets in code, configuration, or deployment pipelines.
Microsoft Entra workload identity
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: Managed identity, system-assigned managed identity, user-assigned managed identity, Azure workload identity, secretless authentication, system-assigned identity, user-assigned identity, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Entra workload identity
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Security
premium
Managed identity for data access
Managed identity for data access is the pattern of using a managed identity to let a workload read or write data without embedded secrets. Teams use it when pipelines, applications, jobs, or analytics services need secure access to storage, databases, or other data services. In plain English, it gives operators a named control for least-privilege data access, reduced secret exposure, and cleaner audit trails instead of leaving the decision hidden in a portal setting, script, or deployment file. Treat it as production-ready only when the owner, dependencies, permission boundary, monitoring signal, and rollback evidence are clear.
Data access security
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: Managed identity for data access, Microsoft Entra ID, Data access security
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Identity
verified
Resource identity
A resource identity is the Azure identity a workload uses when it needs permission to call another service. Most teams see it as a system-assigned or user-assigned managed identity on a VM, App Service, Function, container app, automation account, or data service. Instead of storing a password or client secret, the resource receives a Microsoft Entra identity and uses tokens. Operators then grant that identity roles on Key Vault, Storage, SQL, Cosmos DB, or other dependencies.
Identity operations
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Workload identity for a resource, Managed identity surface
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Analytics
field-manual-complete
Kusto workload group
A Kusto workload group groups queries and management commands by shared characteristics so Azure Data Explorer or Fabric can apply request limits and rate limits. Workload groups support workload management, concurrency control, prioritization, and protection from resource monopolization across tenants.
Azure Data Explorer
advanced
4 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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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
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Identity
premium
Federated credential
A Federated credential is a Microsoft Entra trust configuration that allows a workload to exchange a token from an external identity provider for an Entra access token without using a stored secret. Teams use it to let approved external workloads such as pipelines, automation systems, or Kubernetes workloads authenticate to Azure using signed tokens instead of long-lived client secrets. It is not a user password, general RBAC grant, certificate, managed identity by itself, or permission to access Azure resources without matching issuer, subject, audience, and role assignment controls.
Workload identity
intermediate
6 commands
Aliases: workload federated credential, OIDC credential, external identity federation credential, federated trust credential
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DevOps
premium
Service connection
Service connection is an Azure DevOps project resource that stores how a pipeline authenticates to Azure or another external service. In Azure Resource Manager connections, it can use workload identity federation, a managed identity, or a service principal so pipeline tasks can deploy safely.
CI/CD
fundamentals
6 commands
Aliases: Azure DevOps service connection, service endpoint, Azure Pipelines service connection, Azure RM service connection
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Identity
premium
Service principal
A service principal is the local Microsoft Entra identity for an application or automation instance in a tenant. It represents the app for sign-in, consent, and authorization, and it can receive Azure RBAC roles or API permissions without using a human user account.
Azure identity
fundamentals
6 commands
Aliases: Microsoft Entra service principal, Service principal, application service principal, automation identity, service principal, service-principal
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Containers
premium
AKS cluster
Microsoft Learn describes Azure Kubernetes Service as a managed Kubernetes service for deploying and managing containerized applications. An AKS cluster provides the managed Kubernetes control plane, node pools, networking, identity, scaling, and Azure integration points for running containers in Azure production environments.
Azure Kubernetes Service
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes cluster, AKS managed cluster, Kubernetes cluster in Azure
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Containers
premium
Image pull secret
Image pull secret is a Kubernetes secret that stores registry credentials so pods can pull private container images at deployment time.
Azure Container Registry
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Image pull secret, image pull secret, image-pull-secret
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DevOps
premium
Pipeline in Azure DevOps
A pipeline in Azure DevOps is an automated build, test, and deployment workflow. Microsoft Learn describes Azure Pipelines as CI/CD for many languages, platforms, and targets, with YAML or classic definitions that connect source changes to repeatable delivery stages.
CI/CD
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Pipelines, ADO pipeline, Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline, YAML pipeline, Azure Pipeline, DevOps pipeline
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Identity
premium
Application permission
An application permission is an app-only permission, also exposed as an app role, that lets a client application access a resource without a signed-in user after consent is granted.
Identity operations
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: application permission
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Identity
premium
Client ID
A client ID is the application identifier assigned to an app registration by Microsoft Entra ID. Microsoft Learn describes the Application, or client, ID as the value that uniquely identifies an application in the Microsoft identity platform across tenants and clouds.
Applications
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Identity
premium
Client secret
A client secret is a password-style credential added to an app registration so a confidential application can authenticate to Microsoft Entra ID. Microsoft Learn recommends managing credentials carefully and also supports certificates and federated credentials for stronger automation patterns and rotation.
Applications
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
premium
Defender for Containers
Microsoft Defender for Containers is a Defender for Cloud plan that provides security posture, vulnerability assessment, and threat protection for containerized assets such as Kubernetes clusters, workloads, registries, and images.
Azure Kubernetes Service
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Microsoft Defender for Containers, container protection plan, Defender container security
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DevOps
verified
OIDC federation
OIDC federation in Azure uses workload identity federation to let external workloads exchange trusted identity-provider tokens for Microsoft identity platform access tokens. It removes long-lived secrets for supported scenarios such as GitHub Actions, Kubernetes workloads, Azure Pipelines, and other external compute platforms.
CI/CD security
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: OpenID Connect federation, workload identity federation, federated identity credential, secretless CI/CD authentication
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Identity
field-manual-complete
Token
A token is a security credential issued by Microsoft Entra ID or another identity provider to carry claims about an authenticated user, application, or workload. Azure services use access tokens to authorize requests to specific resources without sending passwords on each call.
Authentication
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: access token, bearer token, security token, OAuth token, Entra token
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Security
verified
Zero Trust
Zero Trust is a security strategy that assumes breach, verifies every access request explicitly, and uses least privilege to reduce blast radius. In Azure, it is implemented through identity, device, network, data, application, monitoring, governance, and threat-detection controls across environments.
Security architecture
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Zero Trust architecture, Never trust always verify, Assume breach, Verify explicitly
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Synapse workspace managed identity
A Synapse workspace managed identity is the workspace's own identity in Microsoft Entra ID. Instead of saving passwords, keys, or connection strings inside pipelines and notebooks, Synapse can use this identity to ask for tokens and reach trusted Azure resources. It is commonly used for Data Lake Storage, Key Vault, SQL, and linked service...
Synapse Analytics
intermediate
8 commands
Aliases: Synapse managed service identity, Synapse MSI, workspace system-assigned identity, Synapse workspace identity
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AI and Machine Learning
premium
Azure OpenAI managed identity
Azure OpenAI managed identity uses Microsoft Entra identities so Azure workloads can call model endpoints without stored keys.
Azure OpenAI
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
premium
Container Apps workload profile
the Container Apps environment compute profile that controls resource size, scaling model, isolation, and billing behavior for deployed apps
Azure Container Apps
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
premium
Dedicated workload profile
A dedicated workload profile in Azure Container Apps provides dedicated compute resources in a workload profiles environment, with billing based on profile instances rather than only per-app consumption.
Azure Container Apps
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Container Apps dedicated workload profile, dedicated profile, workload profile dedicated plan
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Synapse workload group
A Synapse workload group is a dedicated SQL pool workload management object that reserves, caps, and grants resources for classified requests. It uses settings such as MIN_PERCENTAGE_RESOURCE, CAP_PERCENTAGE_RESOURCE, and request resource grant percentages to shape isolation, containment, concurrency, and execution behavior.
Synapse Analytics
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: workload group in Synapse, dedicated SQL pool workload group, CREATE WORKLOAD GROUP, Synapse workload isolation group
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Identity
learning-path-anchor
System-assigned managed identity
A system-assigned managed identity lets one Azure resource authenticate without a stored password, client secret, or certificate managed by your app team. You turn it on for a resource such as a web app, function, virtual machine, data factory, or automation account. Azure creates an identity for that resource, and the resource can request...
Managed identities
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: system assigned identity, resource managed identity, SystemAssigned identity, managed service identity
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Synapse workload classifier
A Synapse workload classifier is a dedicated SQL pool workload management rule that assigns incoming requests to a workload group and importance level. It can classify by user or role, query label, session context, and time window so different workloads receive different resource behavior.
Synapse Analytics
fundamentals
3 commands
Aliases: workload classifier in Synapse, dedicated SQL pool classifier, CREATE WORKLOAD CLASSIFIER, Synapse classification rule
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Identity
field-manual-complete
User-assigned managed identity
A standalone managed identity that can be attached to one or more Azure resources.
Managed identities
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: UAMI, user managed identity, reusable managed identity
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Storage
premium
Data Lake analytics workload
A production analytics workload that stores, transforms, governs, and serves large data sets from a data lake using Azure services such as ADLS Gen2, Data Factory, Databricks, Synapse, or Fabric.
Data Lake Storage
Intermediate
6 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
premium
AKS managed identity
An AKS managed identity is a Microsoft Entra identity that an AKS cluster uses to manage Azure resources without stored service principal secrets.
AKS identity
Intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Kubernetes Service managed identity, aks managed identity
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Integration
premium
Event Grid managed identity delivery
Event Grid managed identity delivery is the pattern where Event Grid uses a managed identity on a topic, domain, or system topic to authenticate event delivery to supported destinations. In Azure, it shows up when teams want to deliver events to Azure destinations without storing destination keys or embedding secrets in event subscription configuration. Teams use it to review system-assigned or user-assigned identity, Event Grid topic or domain identity settings, destination RBAC role assignments, delivery identity settings, dead-letter identity settings, and monitoring before changing production behavior.
Event routing
advanced
5 commands
Aliases: Event Grid managed identity event delivery, managed identity delivery for Event Grid
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Integration
premium
Service Bus managed identity
Service Bus managed identity means using Microsoft Entra managed identities so Azure-hosted applications can access Service Bus without stored credentials. Applications receive RBAC roles such as Data Sender or Data Receiver, while Service Bus namespace identities may also be assigned for service-managed scenarios such as encryption configuration.
Service Bus
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: Service Bus identity-based access, Service Bus Entra authentication, managed identity for Service Bus, Service Bus secretless authentication, Service Bus RBAC identity
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Analytics
premium
Data Factory managed identity
The Microsoft Entra identity assigned to a Data Factory so pipelines and linked services can access Azure resources without embedded passwords.
Data integration and orchestration
Intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Data Factory managed identity, ADF managed identity, data factory managed identity
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Internet of Things
premium
Device identity
A device identity is the IoT Hub identity registry entry that represents a permitted device or module, including its device ID, authentication material, status, and connection-related metadata.
IoT identity
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: IoT Hub device identity, IoT device registry identity, device registry entry, IoT device ID
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Web
premium
Function app managed identity
Function app managed identity is a Microsoft Entra identity assigned to a function app so its code and supported bindings can access Azure resources without storing passwords or connection strings. Teams use it to replace secrets in app settings with identity-based access to services such as Storage, Service Bus, Key Vault, Event Hubs, SQL, or monitoring resources. In daily Azure work, it shows up when engineers grant a function app data-plane permissions, remove leaked connection strings, configure identity-based bindings, or investigate why a trigger cannot reach its dependency.
Azure Functions
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Azure Functions managed identity, managed identity for Functions, function app identity
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Identity
premium
Identity Governance
Identity Governance is a Microsoft Entra set of capabilities for managing identity lifecycle, access lifecycle, access reviews, entitlement management, and privileged access.
Identity operations
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Entra ID Governance, identity governance, Identity Governance, Microsoft Entra Identity Governance
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Identity
premium
Identity Protection
Identity Protection is a Microsoft Entra capability that detects, investigates, and helps remediate risky users and risky sign-ins.
Security
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: Entra ID Protection, identity protection, Identity Protection, identity risk protection, Microsoft Entra ID Protection
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Integration
premium
Logic Apps managed identity
A Logic Apps managed identity is the Microsoft Entra identity assigned to a Logic Apps workflow or Standard logic app resource so the workflow can authenticate to supported Azure resources without storing passwords, shared keys, or long-lived secrets in governed production environments.
Azure Logic Apps
intermediate
4 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Containers
premium
Consumption workload profile
the Azure Container Apps workload profile for serverless container workloads that should scale based on demand and incur cost only while running
Azure Container Apps
intermediate
3 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Identity
premium
Assignment managed identity
Assignment managed identity is the identity Azure Policy uses when a policy assignment must change resources during remediation. It matters most for effects such as modify and deployIfNotExists, where Policy is not just reporting non-compliance but attempting to fix or deploy something. The identity needs Azure RBAC permissions at the right scope. Without those.
Azure Policy
intermediate
2 commands
Aliases: Policy assignment identity, Azure Policy managed identity, policy remediation identity, assignment identity
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Identity
field-manual-complete
Privileged Identity Management
Privileged Identity Management, usually called PIM, is the Microsoft Entra feature that keeps powerful access from being permanently active unless someone really needs it.
Access control
fundamentals
5 commands
Aliases: PIM
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Compute
verified
VM system-assigned identity
VM system-assigned identity is a Microsoft Entra managed identity created directly on an Azure virtual machine. Azure manages its credentials, ties its lifecycle to that VM, and lets the guest request tokens for authorized Azure resources without storing secrets in code.
Virtual Machines
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: VM system-assigned identity, vm system-assigned identity
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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
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Databricks secret scope
A named Databricks collection of secrets used to store credentials and grant controlled read or manage access to workloads.
Databricks
fundamentals
4 commands
Aliases: Databricks secrets scope, secret scope, Azure Databricks secrets
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Databases
learning-path-anchor
Cosmos DB dedicated gateway
Azure Cosmos DB dedicated gateway is provisioned server-side compute that fronts an account and enables the integrated cache for supported NoSQL workloads.
Azure Cosmos DB
fundamentals
3 commands
Aliases: No aliases yet
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Storage
command-rich
Table row key
A Table row key is the unique name of an entity inside one Azure Table partition. PartitionKey gets you to the right group; RowKey identifies the exact record in that group. Together they form the entity primary key. RowKey design often carries an order ID, device ID, timestamp pattern, sequence number, or composite value. It matters because point reads, updates, deletes, duplicate detection, and...
Storage platform
intermediate
5 commands
Aliases: Azure Table RowKey, Table Storage RowKey, Table row key value, RowKey property
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Analytics
learning-path-anchor
Synapse Spark pool
A Synapse Spark pool is the workspace compute definition Azure Synapse uses to start Apache Spark sessions. It records node size, node count, autoscale behavior, runtime version, packages, and idle timeout so notebooks, Spark jobs, and pipelines get repeatable distributed processing.
Synapse Analytics
fundamentals
8 commands
Aliases: Apache Spark pool, Spark pool, Synapse Apache Spark pool, serverless Spark pool
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