Working with Bicep – Part 1: Setup, Licensing, and D365FO Integration

As enterprise solutions evolve, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is becoming a cornerstone of modern DevOps practices. While ARM templates have long been the standard for Azure resource deployment, Bicep—a domain-specific language (DSL) for ARM—offers a cleaner, more maintainable alternative.

In this two-part blog series, we’ll explore how to use Bicep to deploy Azure Logic Apps, with a focus on integrating with Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (D365FO). In Part 2, we’ll extend this by incorporating Azure Functions into the mix.

Why Bicep Over ARM Templates?

ARM templates are powerful but verbose and error-prone. Bicep simplifies this by offering:
- Simplified syntax: No more deeply nested JSON.
- Modularity: Reusable components via modules.
- Better tooling: IntelliSense, type safety, and validation in VS Code.
- Native support: Compiles directly to ARM templates.

Tools Required

1. Azure CLI (v2.20.0+)
2. Bicep CLI (or use `az bicep install`)
3. Visual Studio Code with the Bicep extension
4. Access to Azure Subscription with permissions to deploy resources
5. Logic Apps Standard or Consumption Plan

Licensing Considerations

- Logic Apps Consumption: Pay-per-action; no upfront cost.
- Logic Apps Standard: Fixed pricing per integration service environment (ISE) or App Service Plan.
- D365FO: Ensure the user/service principal has appropriate OData API permissions (typically via Azure AD App Registration).

Sample Bicep Template for Logic App Deployment

Here’s a minimal Bicep file to deploy a Logic App (Consumption Plan):

param logicAppName string = 'd365fo-integration-app'
param location string = resourceGroup().location

resource logicApp 'Microsoft.Logic/workflows@2019-05-01' = {
  name: logicAppName
  location: location
  properties: {
    definition: loadTextContent('./logicapp-definition.json')
    parameters: {}
  }
}

Sample Logic App: Calling a D365FO Service

Let’s say you want to call a custom service in D365FO via OData. Your Logic App might include:
1. HTTP Trigger
2. HTTP Action to call D365FO

Example HTTP Action Configuration:

{
  "method": "GET",
  "uri": "https://<your-env>.cloudax.dynamics.com/data/CustomService",
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer @{body('Get_Token')?['access_token']}",
    "Accept": "application/json"
  }
}

To authenticate, use Azure AD OAuth 2.0 with a client credential flow. You can retrieve the token using a separate HTTP action or Azure Function.

Folder Structure Recommendation

/logicapps
  ├── main.bicep
  ├── logicapp-definition.json
  └── parameters.json

Deployment Command

az deployment group create \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --template-file main.bicep

In the next post, we’ll explore how to extend Logic Apps with Azure Functions, enabling more complex orchestration and custom logic—especially useful when working with D365FO’s business events or data transformations.

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