ClickOps to Code: Recreating Azure Virtual Networks with ARM Templates (No CLI Required).
I'm Iniobong Ema, a Cloud and DevOps Engineer, I'm passionate about automation, pipelines and building scalable systems. I document my journey, share tutorials and explore modern tech solutions-one experiment at a time. From Code to Cloud: My DevOps Journey. My contact information: Phone number: 08027604029 Gmail Address: iniema2025@gmail.com, iniakan4real2017@gmail.com
Infrastructure doesn’t have to start with command lines. Many Azure engineers begin in the portal—and that’s perfectly fine. The real upgrade is learning how to capture what you built, turn it into code, and redeploy it consistently.
In this step-by-step technical blog, you’ll learn how to deploy an Azure Virtual Network (VNet) using an ARM template entirely from the Azure Portal, export the template, and redeploy it—without using Azure CLI at any point.
Why ARM Templates for VNets?
A Virtual Network is the foundation of almost every Azure workload. When you manage VNets manually: Configurations can drift, Recreating environments is slow, Mistakes happen, ARM templates solve this by making your network:
Repeatable
Version-controlled
Consistent across environments
We’ll deploy a custom template
- Deployment method: Azure Portal only and VScode
Prerequisites
An active Azure subscription
Access to the Azure Portal
Basic knowledge of networking concepts
Step 1: Deploy a Linux VNet via Azure Portal
Although ARM templates are often authored manually, exporting an existing deployment is a practical way to understand resource structure.
Create the VNet
Sign in to the Azure Portal, type deploy on azure search bar, select ‘Deploy a custom template’
On the ‘deploy a custom template’ page, select ‘Build your own template in the editor’
The page below will be displayed, delete the highlighted section
Copy the code from no 4 (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/quickstart-create-templates-use-the-portal), to the azure portal and paste.
Click on ‘Save’
The page below will be displayed. create a resource group, allow others at default, then review and create
After clicking on ‘review and create’ after validation is successful, then click on ‘create’
After a successful deployment, click on ‘Go to resource’
On the overview page, click on the arm-rg to ensure the VNET1 was actually created
To see the subnet that was created, on the left pane, click on settings then subnets
On the subnet page, you will see the subnet that was created
You can use automation option on the left bar to export or redeploy template, ARM template etc.
On the menu, click on download, open downloaded files in your computer, use VScode
Step 2: Redeploy the VNet Using the ARM Template
To redeploy using this template, lets delete the existing vnet1 and redeploy
Go to ‘Deploy custom template’ on azure portal
The page below will be displayed, click on ‘build your own template in the editor’
On the displayed page, delete the displayed code and click on ‘Load file’
Go to your download folder, click the downloaded template, click on open. The file will be displayed as shown
Click on ‘save’. On the displayed page, create a new RG, allow others at default, then click on ‘Review and Create’
Then ‘create’
After a successful deployment, click on ‘Go to Resource
On the new vnet created in the new-arm-rg, you can see the NNet 1.
Final step: Validate the Redeployed VNet
Navigate to Virtual networks
Confirm the new VNet exists
Check subnets and address ranges
Everything matches the original, our redeployment was successful.
Conclusion
We’ve just completed a full Infrastructure-as-Code workflow without Azure CLI:
1. Deployed a VNet using an ARM template
2. Exported the deployed infrastructure
3. Redeployed it consistently using the Azure Portal
