Azure resources in Terraform follow a dependency chain. A typical VM needs, in order: a resource group, a virtual network and subnet, a network interface, and finally the VM itself. Terraform infers most of the order from implicit dependencies — when one resource references another’s attribute, it builds them in the right sequence.

You parameterize with variables, expose results with outputs, and keep related resources in modules. The whole environment becomes reproducible code you can review, version, and destroy cleanly.

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "main" {
  name     = "rg-demo"
  location = "westeurope"
}

resource "azurerm_virtual_network" "main" {
  name                = "vnet-demo"
  address_space       = ["10.0.0.0/16"]
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.main.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.main.name
}

resource "azurerm_subnet" "web" {
  name                 = "web"
  resource_group_name  = azurerm_resource_group.main.name
  virtual_network_name = azurerm_virtual_network.main.name
  address_prefixes     = ["10.0.1.0/24"]
}

output "vnet_id" {
  value = azurerm_virtual_network.main.id
}

1. Write the resource block for a resource group with a variable-driven location.
2. Add a subnet that references the VNet’s name and resource group.
3. Add an output exposing the subnet’s ID.
4. Run terraform plan and read the dependency order Terraform chose.

• ↗ Terraform — azurerm_linux_virtual_machine