Azure Resource Naming Conventions (CAF)

Source: Define your naming convention | Abbreviations | Name rules

Always follow these rules when creating, suggesting, or reviewing Azure resource names.

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General Pattern

<resource-type-abbr>-<workload>-<environment>-<region>-<instance>

Component rules:

• Resource type — use the official abbreviation from the table below, placed first
• Workload / app / project — short descriptive name (e.g., navigator, payments)
• Environment — prod, dev, qa, stage, test
• Region — use Azure region short names: westus, eastus2, westeurope, northeurope, uksouth, southeastasia, australiaeast, etc.
• Instance — zero-padded number: 001, 002

Some resource types deviate from this pattern (e.g., no hyphens allowed). See Official Abbreviations and Naming Rules for per-resource patterns and constraints.

General character rules:

• Prefer lowercase letters and hyphens (-). No spaces, no underscores unless the resource type requires it.
• Some resources do not allow hyphens — use concatenated lowercase alphanumerics instead (see table).
• Do not use: #, <, >, %, &, \, ?, / or control characters.
• Do not encode sensitive data (subscription ID, tenant ID) in names.
• Most names are case-insensitive in Azure — always compare case-insensitively.
• Resources with public endpoints cannot include reserved words or trademarks.

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Naming Scope

Scope	Meaning
Global	Unique across all of Azure (PaaS with public endpoints)
Resource group	Unique within the resource group
Resource	Unique within the parent resource

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Official Abbreviations and Naming Rules

Management and Governance

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
Management group	mg	tenant	1-90	Alphanumerics, hyphens, underscores, periods, parentheses	mg-platform-prod
Resource group	rg	subscription	1-90	Underscores, hyphens, periods, parentheses, letters, digits	rg-navigator-prod
Log Analytics workspace	log	resource group	4-63	Alphanumerics and hyphens	log-navigator-prod-001
Application Insights	appi	resource group	1-260	Can't use: %&\?/	appi-navigator-prod-001
Automation account	aa	resource group + region	6-50	Alphanumerics and hyphens, start with letter	aa-navigator-prod-001

Networking

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
Virtual network	vnet	resource group	2-64	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	vnet-shared-eastus2-001
Subnet	snet	virtual network	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	snet-shared-eastus2-001
Network security group	nsg	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	nsg-weballow-001
Application security group	asg	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	asg-navigator-prod-001
Network interface	nic	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	nic-01-vmnavigator-prod-001
Public IP address	pip	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	pip-navigator-prod-westus-001
Load balancer (internal)	lbi	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	lbi-navigator-prod-001
Load balancer (external)	lbe	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	lbe-navigator-prod-001
Application gateway	agw	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	agw-navigator-prod-001
Firewall	afw	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	afw-navigator-prod-001
Firewall policy	afwp	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	afwp-navigator-prod-001
Route table	rt	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	rt-navigator-prod-001
Virtual network gateway	vgw	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	vgw-shared-eastus2-001
VPN Gateway	vpng	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	vpng-navigator-prod-001
Azure Bastion	bas	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	bas-navigator-prod-001
Private endpoint	pep	resource group	2-64	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	pep-navigator-prod-001
Traffic Manager profile	traf	global	1-63	Alphanumerics and hyphens (no periods)	traf-navigator-prod
ExpressRoute circuit	erc	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	erc-navigator-prod-001
CDN profile	cdnp	resource group	1-260	Alphanumerics and hyphens	cdnp-navigator-prod-001
Front Door profile	afd	resource group	5-64	Alphanumerics and hyphens	afd-navigator-prod

Compute and Web

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
Virtual machine	vm	resource group	1-15 (Windows) / 1-64 (Linux)	No spaces or: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) = + _ [ ] { } | ; : . ' " , < > / ?	vm-sql-test-001
VM scale set	vmss	resource group	1-15 (Windows) / 1-64 (Linux)	Same as VM	vmss-navigator-prod-001
Availability set	avail	resource group	1-80	Alphanumerics, underscores, periods, hyphens	avail-navigator-prod-001
App Service plan	asp	resource group	1-60	Alphanumeric, hyphens, Unicode	asp-navigator-prod-001
Web app	app	global	2-60	Alphanumeric, hyphens, Unicode. Can't start/end with hyphen.	app-navigator-prod-001
Function app	func	global	2-60	Alphanumeric, hyphens, Unicode. Can't start/end with hyphen.	func-navigator-prod-001
Static web app	stapp	resource group	—	—	stapp-navigator-prod-001
App Service environment	ase	resource group	—	—	ase-navigator-prod-001

Containers

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
AKS cluster	aks	resource group	1-63	Alphanumerics, underscores, hyphens	aks-navigator-prod-001
AKS system node pool	npsystem	managed cluster	1-12 (Linux) / 1-6 (Windows)	Lowercase letters and numbers, can't start with number	npsystem
AKS user node pool	np	managed cluster	1-12 (Linux) / 1-6 (Windows)	Lowercase letters and numbers, can't start with number	npusers
Container apps	ca	resource group	2-32	Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens. Start with letter, end with alphanumeric.	ca-navigator-prod-001
Container apps environment	cae	resource group	—	—	cae-navigator-prod-001
Container instance	ci	resource group	1-63	Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens. Can't start/end with hyphen.	ci-navigator-prod-001
Container registry	cr	global	5-50	Alphanumerics only — no hyphens	crnavigatorprod001

Databases

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
Azure SQL server	sql	global	1-63	Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens. Can't start/end with hyphen.	sql-navigator-prod-001
Azure SQL database	sqldb	SQL server	1-128	Can't use: <>*%&:\/?	sqldb-navigator-prod
SQL Managed Instance	sqlmi	global	1-63	Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens. Can't start/end with hyphen.	sqlmi-navigator-prod-001
Azure Cosmos DB	cosmos	global	3-44	Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens. Start with lowercase letter or number.	cosmos-navigator-prod
Azure Managed Redis	amr	global	1-63	Alphanumerics and hyphens. Start/end with alphanumeric.	amr-navigator-prod-001
MySQL server	mysql	global	3-63	Lowercase letters, hyphens, numbers. Can't start/end with hyphen.	mysql-navigator-prod-001
PostgreSQL server	psql	global	3-63	Lowercase letters, hyphens, numbers. Can't start/end with hyphen.	psql-navigator-prod-001

Storage

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
Storage account	st	global	3-24	Lowercase letters and numbers only — no hyphens	stnavigatorprod001
Backup vault	bvault	resource group	2-50	Alphanumerics and hyphens. Start with a letter.	bvault-navigator-prod-001

Security

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
Key vault	kv	global	3-24	Alphanumerics and hyphens. Start with letter, end with letter or number. No consecutive hyphens.	kv-navigator-prod-001
Managed identity	id	resource group	3-128	Alphanumerics, hyphens, underscores. Start with letter or number.	id-navigator-prod-001

Integration

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
API Management	apim	global	1-50	Alphanumerics and hyphens. Start with letter, end with alphanumeric.	apim-navigator-prod
Service Bus namespace	sbns	global	6-50	Alphanumerics and hyphens. Start with letter, end with letter or number.	sbns-navigator-prod
Service Bus queue	sbq	Service Bus	1-260	Alphanumerics, periods, hyphens, underscores, slashes	sbq-navigator
Service Bus topic	sbt	Service Bus	1-260	Alphanumerics, periods, hyphens, underscores, slashes	sbt-navigator
Event Hubs namespace	evhns	global	6-50	Alphanumerics and hyphens. Start with letter, end with letter or number.	evhns-navigator-prod
Event hub	evh	Event Hubs namespace	1-256	Alphanumerics, periods, hyphens, underscores	evh-navigator
Logic app	logic	resource group	1-43	Alphanumerics, hyphens, underscores, periods	logic-navigator-prod-001

AI and Machine Learning

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
Azure OpenAI Service	oai	resource group	2-64	Alphanumerics and hyphens	oai-navigator-prod
AI Search	srch	global	—	—	srch-navigator-prod
Azure ML workspace	mlw	resource group	3-33	Alphanumerics, hyphens, underscores	mlw-navigator-prod
Foundry hub	hub	resource group	3-33	Alphanumerics, hyphens, underscores	hub-navigator-prod
Foundry hub project	proj	Foundry hub	3-33	Alphanumerics, hyphens, underscores	proj-navigator-prod
Foundry account	aif	resource group	2-64	Alphanumerics and hyphens	aif-navigator-prod
Foundry account project	proj	Foundry account	—	—	proj-navigator-prod
Foundry Tools (multi-service)	ais	resource group	2-64	Alphanumerics and hyphens	ais-navigator-prod

Analytics and IoT

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
Azure Data Factory	adf	global	3-63	Alphanumerics and hyphens. Start/end with alphanumeric.	adf-navigator-prod
Azure Databricks workspace	dbw	resource group	3-64	Alphanumerics, underscores, hyphens	dbw-navigator-prod-001
Azure Data Explorer cluster	dec	global	4-22	Lowercase letters and numbers. Start with a letter.	decnavigatorprod
Azure Synapse workspace	synw	global	1-50	Lowercase letters, hyphens, numbers. Start/end with letter or number.	synw-navigator-prod
IoT hub	iot	global	3-50	Alphanumerics and hyphens. Can't end with hyphen.	iot-navigator-prod
Event Grid topic	evgt	region	3-50	Alphanumerics and hyphens	evgt-navigator-prod

Developer Tools

Resource	Abbr	Scope	Length	Valid Characters	Example
App Configuration store	appcs	global	5-50	Alphanumerics and hyphens. No more than two consecutive hyphens.	appcs-navigator-prod
SignalR	sigr	global	3-63	Alphanumerics and hyphens. Start with letter, end with letter or number.	sigr-navigator-prod

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Resources That Do NOT Allow Hyphens

These resources require concatenated lowercase alphanumerics (no separators):

Resource	Abbr	Pattern
Storage account	st	st{workload}{env}{instance} → stnavigatorprod001
Container registry	cr	cr{workload}{env}{instance} → crnavigatorprod001
Azure Data Explorer cluster	dec	dec{workload}{env} → decnavigatorprod

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Examples (CAF)

# Management
rg-navigator-prod
rg-webapp-database-dev

# Networking
vnet-shared-eastus2-001
snet-shared-eastus2-001
nsg-weballow-001
pip-dc1-shared-eastus2-001
lbe-navigator-prod-001

# Compute
vm-sql-test-001
vm-sharepoint-dev-001
vmss-navigator-prod-001
asp-navigator-prod-001
app-navigator-prod-001
func-navigator-prod-001

# Containers
aks-navigator-prod-001
ca-navigator-prod-001
cae-navigator-prod-001
crnavigatorprod001        # no hyphens!

# Databases
sql-navigator-prod-001
sqldb-navigator-prod
cosmos-navigator-prod
psql-navigator-prod-001

# Storage / Security
stnavigatorprod001        # no hyphens!
kv-navigator-prod-001
id-navigator-prod-001

# Integration
apim-navigator-prod
sbns-navigator-prod
evhns-navigator-prod

# Monitoring
log-navigator-prod-001
appi-navigator-prod-001

# AI
oai-navigator-prod
srch-navigator-prod

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Do NOT Do

• Do not use underscores unless the resource type requires it — use hyphens.
• Do not spell out the full resource type word (e.g., storageaccount-myapp → use stmyapp001).
• Do not use uppercase letters (resources are case-insensitive; lowercase is the convention).
• Do not include sensitive data (subscription ID, tenant ID, passwords) in names.
• Do not skip the environment segment — even for production.
• Do not use # — it breaks URL parsing in Azure Resource Manager.
• Do not use reserved words or trademarks in names for resources with public endpoints.
• Do not use more than two consecutive hyphens (e.g., app--prod is invalid).