It’s not a big secret that cloud architecture can be both complex and confusing.
Lucidscale helps organizations see and understand their cloud environment.
It uses metadata to automatically generate accurate dynamic
cloud diagrams that help teams effectively design,
build, deploy, and troubleshoot as their businesses grow.
In this video, we’re going to focus on how to import your Azure Cloud Architecture.
If you’re logging into Lucidscale for the first time
you’ll be prompted to tell Lucid a little about you and your workflow.
Finally, you’ll see the ability to create a model from sample data
or start the process to import your Azure data.
Outside of your first time logging in, there are two ways to import your data:
First, you can import by clicking on the +New Button,
selecting Lucidscale, choosing Azure
and then selecting Open Data Hub to import Subscriptions.
The second option is to visit the Data Hub, selecting Azure
and then clicking here to add a new subscription.
Lucidscale will import your subscription via the credential information you provide.
It’s important to note that if you’ve previously used the Lucidchart add-on,
Cloud Insights,
then you should see the subscription
credentials you’ve previously imported listed on the credential page.
In order to add a new subscription, you’ll want to click + New Subscription.
To import a new subscription, you’ll do this through
an Azure CLI Script or an Azure AD Application.
We recommend connecting to your account using an Azure AD Application.
This will allow Lucidscale
to easily refresh and update the account infrastructure with a simple click.
When importing with a new subscription you’ll need to add credentials
by clicking, Create New AD Application.
In the window that appears you’ll select between the type of application
you want to import.
You’ll have the option to select a Global Azure Application or
an Azure Government Application, depending on where your Azure instance resides.
Be sure to leave this tab open because you’ll return to it
after your configuration in the Azure console.
Now, in a new window open and log into the Azure account.
Once logged in click on App registrations.
From here you’ll select +New Registration.
Next, you’ll create new register.
Your first step will be to name your new application.
Best practice is to include Lucidscale in the name to help you find the application later.
Once you have entered the name, click Register.
In the overview window of the new application
you are going to copy the Application (client) ID by clicking the copy to clipboard icon.
From here, return to the Lucidscale window and paste the Application (client) ID.
Navigate back to the Azure tab and copy the Directory (tenant) ID
by clicking on the clipboard icon.
Go back to the Lucidscale screen and paste the copied ID into the Directory (tenant) ID field.
Go back to the Azure window and select the Certificates & Secrets tab in your application.
Once on this page click on the +New client secrets to protect the resources
you will be associating with this application.
On Add client secret add a description for the client secret
and select the expiration value you want and then click add.
Copy the Value of the newly generated secret
by clicking the copy to clipboard icon to the right of the Value field.
Navigate back to your Lucid tab and paste the secret value into the Client Secret field.
Finally, type a nickname value into the Application Name field.
Next, click to download the permission JSON file to your computer.
From here, navigate back to your Azure window and go back to the Azure homepage
and click Subscriptions.
Click on one of your subscriptions and in this window select Access Control (IAM).
In this window, click +Add to add a new Custom Role.
In the new Custom Role window
click Start From JSON File and click the button to browse where you saved
your previously downloaded JSON permissions file on your computer.
This permissions file will define the visibility
from the Azure subscription to Lucidscale throughout the AD application.
In the Custom Role Name box add a value that has Lucidscale
somewhere in the name so it is searchable later and click next.
On the permission page, click next.
On the Assignable Scopes page, click to add assignable scopes.
Click on the Type drop-down menu and select the subscription
you recently created.
Click on the subscription
from the right hand menu to add them to the assignable scopes.
Then click select.
On the assignable scopes page, click next.
On the JSON page, click next.
On the Review + Create page click on the create button.
Click Ok to return to the subscription that you started in.
NOTE: Now that a custom role has been created
it now needs to be assigned to the AD Application.
The next steps will need to be completed within each subscription
that you want to visualize within Lucidscale.
Once back in the window for the subscription, click on the Role Assignments.
From here, click on Add and then Add Role Assignment.
Populate in the Add Role Assignments window the Custom Role
you have just created.
Click on + Select Members and search for the Lucidscale App Registration
you created before.
Then click on the App.
Then, click select and next.
Finally, click Review + Assign.
From here navigate back to your Lucidscale page and click next.
For reference in the future, if everything has been configured correctly
it will validate the AD Application, Credentials and Subscriptions
to then display the AD Application on the saved credentials page.
Now that you’ve added the credentials, you can select the new AD application
to visualize in Lucidscale by clicking “Next.”
In the next window, you’ll select the subscription you’d like to visualize.
On this page, you will see the subscriptions
associated with the selected AD Application credential.
Note: You can import up to 5 subscriptions to a Lucidscale subscription view.
Once selected, you’ll select the resources you’d like to visualize
from the subscriptions.
Quick Tip: In this screen you will also see the option
to name the Lucid Subscription connection you are creating.
The best practice is to name
what you are going to be visualizing from your Azure cloud architecture.
This name is what will appear on your data hub page for the account after you
click Import Azure Subscriptions.
From here you are ready to create models.
To create a model from the list of Azure imported subscriptions,
you can do this from the +New button or from the Azure Imported Data window.
Either way, you will be taken to a new model window,
where you will select what subscriptions you want to visualize in the model
and you will be able to see
the information associated with each subscription from the window.
In the next window, you will be able to pre-filter your data by tags
before creating a model to immediately highlight specific information.
Once you have filtered your data, you are ready to create your Azure model.
Note: Performance may start to decrease as the number of resources in the model increases.
Lucidscale makes it easy to visualize multiple components
of your Azure cloud architecture with accurate, dynamic diagrams.
Check out the rest of the Lucidscale playlist
to learn how to create different views, filter the information you need the most
and to manage your data and diagrams to better govern the cloud.