azure-container-instances

---
name: azure-container-instances
description: Expert knowledge for Azure Container Instances development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and deployment. Use when configuring ACI container groups, VNet/IP routing, standby pools, Spot containers, or GitHub Actions deploys, and other Azure Container Instances related development tasks. Not for Azure Container Apps (use azure-container-apps), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (use azure-kubernetes-service), Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-virtual-machines), Azure Batch (use azure-batch).
compatibility: Requires network access. Uses mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch or fetch_webpage to retrieve documentation.
metadata:
  generated_at: "2026-05-17"
  generator: "docs2skills/1.0.0"
---
# Azure Container Instances Skill

This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Container Instances. Covers troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and deployment. It combines local quick-reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities.

## How to Use This Skill

> **IMPORTANT for Agent**: Use the **Category Index** below to locate relevant sections. For categories with line ranges (e.g., `L35-L120`), use `read_file` with the specified lines. For categories with file links (e.g., `[security.md](security.md)`), use `read_file` on the linked reference file

> **IMPORTANT for Agent**: If `metadata.generated_at` is more than 3 months old, suggest the user pull the latest version from the repository. If `mcp_microsoftdocs` tools are not available, suggest the user install it: [Installation Guide](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/mcp/blob/main/README.md)

This skill requires **network access** to fetch documentation content:
- **Preferred**: Use `mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch` with query string `from=learn-agent-skill`. Returns Markdown.
- **Fallback**: Use `fetch_webpage` with query string `from=learn-agent-skill&accept=text/markdown`. Returns Markdown.

## Category Index

| Category | Lines | Description |
|----------|-------|-------------|
| Troubleshooting | L36-L42 | Diagnosing ACI issues by viewing logs/events, understanding provisioning/runtime states, and troubleshooting common deployment, startup, and container runtime failures. |
| Best Practices | L43-L47 | Guidance on designing and running ACI workloads reliably: resource sizing, networking, storage, security, scaling, image management, and operational best practices. |
| Decision Making | L48-L53 | Guidance on cost-optimizing ACI with Spot containers and using prediction-based sizing to configure and right-size Azure Container Instances standby pools. |
| Architecture & Design Patterns | L54-L60 | Design patterns for giving ACI containers static inbound/outbound IPs using Application Gateway, firewalls, and NAT Gateway for controlled, predictable network egress/ingress. |
| Limits & Quotas | L61-L69 | ACI limits on CPU/memory, quotas per region, standby pool constraints, behavior FAQs, and networking/VNet considerations that affect container capacity and availability |
| Security | L70-L84 | Securing Azure Container Instances: TLS/HTTPS setup, image and secret protection, managed identities, RBAC, DNS safety, ACR auth, CMK encryption, and Azure Policy enforcement. |
| Configuration | L85-L117 | Configuring ACI container groups: YAML, env vars, DNS, volumes, probes, GPUs, restart/entrypoint, standby pools, networking, lifecycle, logging, and monitoring. |
| Deployment | L118-L121 | Using GitHub Actions to build, push, and automatically deploy container images to Azure Container Instances, including workflow YAML setup and authentication configuration. |

### Troubleshooting
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Retrieve Azure Container Instances logs and events for troubleshooting | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-get-logs |
| Troubleshoot common deployment and runtime issues in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-troubleshooting |
| Interpret Azure Container Instances provisioning and runtime states | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-state |

### Best Practices
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Apply Azure Container Instances workload best practices | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-best-practices-and-considerations |

### Decision Making
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Decide when to use ACI Spot containers for cost savings | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-spot-containers-overview |
| Use prediction results to right-size Azure Container Instances standby pools | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-prediction-results |

### Architecture & Design Patterns
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Expose Azure Container Instances via Application Gateway static IP | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-application-gateway |
| Configure static outbound IP for Azure Container Instances with firewall | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-egress-ip-address |
| Configure Azure Container Instances egress via NAT Gateway | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-nat-gateway |

### Limits & Quotas
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Use Big Containers with ACI vCPU and memory limits | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/big-containers |
| Azure Container Instances FAQs on limits and behavior | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-faq |
| Check ACI resource availability and quota limits by region | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-resource-and-quota-limits |
| FAQ and limits for Azure Container Instances standby pools | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-faq |
| Use Azure Container Instances with virtual networks | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-virtual-network-concepts |

### Security
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Configure automatic HTTPS for Azure Container Instances using Caddy | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-container-group-automatic-ssl |
| Enable TLS for Azure Container Instances with Nginx sidecar | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-container-group-ssl |
| Encrypt Azure Container Instances deployment data with customer-managed keys | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-encrypt-data |
| Secure images and secrets for Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-image-security |
| Enable and use managed identities in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-managed-identity |
| Configure RBAC permissions for Azure Container Instances standby pools | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-configure-permissions |
| Configure ACI to pull images from ACR using service principals | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-using-azure-container-registry |
| Mount secret volumes in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-volume-secret |
| Set ACI DNS name reuse policy to prevent subdomain takeover | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/how-to-reuse-dns-names |
| Use built-in Azure Policy definitions for Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/policy-reference |
| Use managed identities for ACI image pulls from private ACR | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/using-azure-container-registry-mi |

### Configuration
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Use config maps to manage settings in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-config-map |
| Configure custom DNS for Azure Container Instances container groups | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-custom-dns |
| Configure environment variables for Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-environment-variables |
| Execute commands in running Azure Container Instances containers | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-exec |
| Deploy GPU-enabled workloads on Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-gpu |
| Configure init containers in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-init-container |
| Configure liveness probes for Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-liveness-probe |
| Send Azure Container Instances resource logs to Azure Monitor | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-log-analytics |
| Configure readiness probes for Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-readiness-probe |
| YAML configuration reference for Azure Container Instances container groups | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-reference-yaml |
| Configure ACI restart policies for run-once container tasks | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-restart-policy |
| Create standby pools for Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-create |
| Retrieve details of Azure Container Instances standby pools | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-get-details |
| Understand and query health state of Azure Container Instances standby pools | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-health-state |
| Use standby pools to reduce Azure Container Instances scale-out latency | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-overview |
| Request container groups from Azure Container Instances standby pools | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-request-container |
| Update or delete Azure Container Instances standby pools | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-update-delete |
| Monitor Azure Container Instances standby pool events with Log Analytics | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pools-monitor-pool-events |
| Override container entrypoint command in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-start-command |
| Manually stop and start Azure Container Instances container groups | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-stop-start |
| Update running container groups in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-update |
| Configure ACI container groups in Azure virtual networks via CLI | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-vnet |
| Mount Azure Files volumes in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-volume-azure-files |
| Use emptyDir volumes to share data in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-volume-emptydir |
| Mount gitRepo volumes in Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-volume-gitrepo |
| Configure monitoring and alerts for Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/monitor-azure-container-instances |
| Configure monitoring and alerts for Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/monitor-azure-container-instances |
| Monitoring data reference for Azure Container Instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/monitor-azure-container-instances-reference |
| View Azure Container Instances logs in Log Analytics via portal | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/viewing-logs-in-portal |

### Deployment
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Automate ACI deployments with GitHub Actions workflow configuration | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-github-action |