Background
Many organizations manage their Azure environments using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and automated provisioning processes. New Azure subscriptions are created programmatically using tools such as:
- Terraform
- Azure Landing Zones
- Azure DevOps Pipelines
- GitHub Actions
- Other automation frameworks
In these environments, subscriptions are no longer created manually through the Azure Portal.
Current Limitation
While Azure subscriptions can be provisioned automatically, onboarding a new Azure Subscription into SolarWinds Observability Cloud currently requires a manual configuration step through the user interface.
As environments grow, this introduces additional operational overhead and delays, especially in organizations managing large numbers of subscriptions.
Business Impact
Organizations with automated cloud platforms may experience:
- Manual onboarding effort for every new subscription
- Increased operational workload
- Delays between subscription creation and monitoring availability
- Reduced consistency with Infrastructure as Code operating models
- Additional risk of human error during onboarding
The problem becomes more significant in large-scale Azure environments where subscriptions are created regularly as part of standardized platform processes.
Requested Enhancement
Provide a supported mechanism to onboard and manage Azure Cloud Accounts programmatically, for example through:
- Public API
- Terraform Provider
- Infrastructure as Code integration
- CI/CD automation workflows
- Declarative configuration management
The onboarding process should support creation, update and lifecycle management of Azure Cloud Accounts without requiring manual interaction with the SolarWinds Observability Cloud user interface.
Use Case
Current process:
Terraform creates Azure Subscription
↓
Administrator logs into SolarWinds
↓
Cloud Account is added manually
↓
Monitoring becomes available
Desired process:
Terraform creates Azure Subscription
↓
Terraform/API automatically creates Cloud Account in SolarWinds
↓
Monitoring becomes available automatically
Expected Benefits
- End-to-end infrastructure automation
- Faster subscription onboarding
- Reduced operational effort
- Improved consistency and governance
- Better support for Azure Landing Zone architectures
- Scalability for large multi-subscription environments
