Compute · Lesson 14 of 24

Containers: ACR, ACI, Container Apps

Shipping an app in a box, where you store the boxes, and the two Azure places that run one without you managing a server.

About 10 min · Interactive · 3 practice questions

Exam objective
Create and manage an Azure Container Registry · Provision a container with ACI · Provision a container with Container Apps · Manage sizing and scaling for containersDeploy and manage Azure compute resources · 20–25% of the exam · typical question: "Which container service for requirement X" (batch job vs autoscaling API), ACR SKU features
In one sentence. A container is an application packed together with everything it needs, so it runs identically on any machine with a container engine. Azure gives you a private shelf to store the packed images (Container Registry), a place to run one quickly for a job (Container Instances), and a place to run web services that scale on their own (Container Apps). Kubernetes (AKS) is the heavy-duty option and is only mentioned for contrast.
Developer PCdocker buildAzure Container Registrycontosoacr.azurecr.io/app:1Container Instancesone box, billed per secondContainer Apps0 → many boxes, HTTP, revisionspushpull
Build once, push to your registry, pull from wherever it runs.
ServiceCreate itSettings you chooseScalingPick when
Azure Container Registry (ACR)Container registries › + Create; SKU Basic / Standard / PremiumAdmin user (off by default; prefer managed identity or service principal). Premium adds geo-replication, private link, content trust. ACR Tasks can build the image in the cloud.n/aYou need somewhere private to keep images
Azure Container Instances (ACI)Container instances › + Create or az container createImage, CPU (e.g. 1), memory (e.g. 1.5 GB), restart policy Always / OnFailure / Never, environment variables, public IP with DNS label or a VNet, an Azure Files share as a volume for files that must surviveNone. You set the size; it does not add copiesA batch job, a quick test, a small always-on tool
Azure Container AppsContainer Apps › + Create inside a Container Apps environment (shared VNet and Log Analytics)Ingress external or internal; revisions (each deploy is a version; split traffic 90/10 between two); scale rules on HTTP concurrency, CPU, memory, or an event source such as queue length (KEDA); min and max replicas, min 0 = scale to zeroAutomatic, 0 to manyAPIs and background workers that need autoscale without running Kubernetes
AKSFull Kubernetes clusterNode pools, kubectlCluster and pod autoscalersContrast only
az acr login --name contosoacr
docker tag app:1 contosoacr.azurecr.io/app:1
docker push contosoacr.azurecr.io/app:1
az container create -g RG1 -n nightly --image contosoacr.azurecr.io/app:1   --cpu 1 --memory 1.5 --restart-policy OnFailure   --azure-file-volume-share-name output --azure-file-volume-mount-path /out
Trap wording. "Single container, minimal setup, persistent files" = ACI + Azure Files volume. "Scale to zero / scale on queue length / traffic split between versions" = Container Apps. "Replicate images to several regions" = ACR Premium.

Key points

  • Container Registry stores images (Premium adds geo-replication); push after az acr login.
  • Container Instances runs one container quickly, billed per second, no autoscale; persist files with an Azure Files volume.
  • Container Apps runs services that scale from zero on HTTP load or queue length, with revisions and traffic splitting.
  • AKS is full Kubernetes and appears only for contrast.

Formal terms: Container image, registry, container group, restart policy, Container Apps environment, revision, ingress, KEDA.

Check your understanding

3 exam-style questions in the formats AZ-104 uses. Each is marked when you check it, with the reasoning.

0 of 3 checked

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