Way to replace existing strorage account in cloud using biceps

Question

Way to replace existing strorage account in cloud using biceps

Varma 1,620

following bicep code: which creates storage account and i am using following deployment command to execute this code:

@description('this is for storage account name')
@minLength(3)
@maxLength(24)
param storageAccount string

@description('this is for location')
param location string = resourceGroup().location

@description('this is for SKU')
param skuforyou string

resource storageAccountt 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-05-01' = {
  name: storageAccount
  location: location
  sku: {
    name: skuforyou
  }
  kind: 'storageV2'
}

command used:


New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -Name 'testdeployment' -TemplateFile 'I:\Bicep\BicepUdemy\main.bicep' -ResourceGroupName 'RG' -Mode Incremental

my questions are:

why above commands new account every time , ( of course i was giving new storage account name ) every time.
what change should be done to above command only to make it replace instead of adding new one?

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Answer 1

Hello Varma,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

When investigated it looks like it’s doing exactly what you’ve told it—every time you hand it a brand-new name, an Incremental deployment will happily create a new storage account rather than touching your old one. If you want to “replace” (delete the old and stand up the new in its place) just by tweaking the command, switch your deployment mode from Incremental to Complete:

New-AzResourceGroupDeployment `
  -Name testdeployment `
  -TemplateFile 'I:\Bicep\BicepUdemy\main.bicep' `
  -ResourceGroupName RG `
  -Mode Complete

What happens with -Mode Complete is:

• Any resource in the resource group that isn’t in your Bicep template (including your old storage account name) gets removed

• Then it creates the resources you define (your “new” storage account)

If your goal is simply to update an existing storage account in-place, you can stick with Incremental but pass the same storageAccount name on each run—ARM/Bicep will then patch any properties you changed rather than spinning up a new account.

Hope that clears it up!

Reference list

Getting started with Bicep: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/bicep/install

Troubleshoot Bicep file deployments: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/troubleshooting/quickstart-troubleshoot-bicep-deployment

Storage account resource reference (Bicep): https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/templates/microsoft.storage/storageAccounts?tabs=bicep

Siva shunmugam Nadessin 10,900 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-12T12:53:49.08+00:00

Hello Varma,

Just checking in to see if the solution shared above help you to resolve your issue. please reach out to us If you have any further questions.

Thanks

Answer 2

Stanislav Zhelyazkov 29,826 MVP Volunteer Moderator

Hi,

You have to provide the same storage account name every time. Storage account name is unique value so by giving a different name every time you are creating a new account. There is no replacement option. You can set mode to Complete in the command but that will create new account and delete the old one and any other resource in the resource group.

Please "Accept the answer" if the information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.

Varma 1,620 Reputation points

2026-05-11T10:04:20.4133333+00:00
HI Stanislav,

I got it.

one question:

When i execute below command i know it will delete existing storage account in resource group and will create an new one:

PS I:\Bicep\y> New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -Name 'testdeployment' -TemplateFile 'I:\Bicep\BicepUdemy\main.bicep' -ResourceGroupName 'RG' -Mode Complete

so my doubt is is there any wat to delete existing storage account and also not allowing to create storage account when executing same command? any changes can be done in above command to achieve that?
Stanislav Zhelyazkov 29,826 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-05-11T16:54:53.0333333+00:00

If you remove the resource from the template and use Complete mode I believe that will remove any existing resource in the resource group and because you do not have resource in the template it will not deploy any other. Overall it is unclear what exactly you want to achieve. If you want to have proper management of resources when deployed via Bicep I would suggest to use deployment stacks. I won't go into details but deployment stacks allows you to put resources deployed via Bicep in a stack and manage their lifecycle (updating, removing, etc.)
Stanislav Zhelyazkov 29,826 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-05-11T16:56:10.9233333+00:00

Also note that Complete mode is not something I recommend being used. It is an old concept of Azure deployments. Recommendation is to use deployment stacks for managing resources deployed via Bicep.
Varma 1,620 Reputation points

2026-05-12T05:27:19.1966667+00:00

HI Stainslav

I understand if i use increment mode --> it will not delete and add the resource

and if I use deployment mode --> it will delete the existing resource and create that new resource

but how deployment stack is different from these? I have gone through docs. but not much clear

can you give simple scenario and example for deployment stack to test?
Stanislav Zhelyazkov 29,826 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-05-12T06:06:23.37+00:00

Deployment stack manages only the resources that are within the stack. Let's say you have Bicep template that deploys one storage account - Account1. You deploy the template via deployment stack. Once successfully deployed that storage account is part of the stack. If you do another deployment and add second storage account - Account2 now the stack has both Account1 and Account2 in the stack. You do a third deployment where you remove the deployment of Account1 from the bicep template. The removal could be due to removing the code for the resource or may be using another name for storage account so instead of deploying Account1 you are deploying Account3. If we take the latter example and you do deployment stack deployment - Account2 will be deployed, Account3 will be deployed and at the end of the deployment Account1 will be deleted. Now if you completely remove Account2 and Account3 as well from the template and deploy at the end of the deployment both Account2 and Account3 will be deleted. You could also delete the deployment stack and that will also delete any resources that were part of the stack. Note this is if with action on unmanage set to deleteAll. There is option of detachAll which only removes the resources from the stack but does not delete them.
Stanislav Zhelyazkov 29,826 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-05-12T06:08:47.94+00:00

You can take the training to understand better: Introduction to deployment stacks

Varma 1,620

Thanks for sharing it, one last question:

So, considering the same storage account deployment through Incremental Mode:
Every time, Storage Account 1 gets created, Storage Account 2 gets created, and Storage Account 3 gets created.
So, all 3 storage accounts are created.


And considering the same storage account deployment through Complete Mode:
It deletes the existing resources and creates only the resources that we are targeting from the code.




And in Deployment Stack:
Whatever is present in the code will be kept in the real environment, whether it is Storage Account 1, 2, and 3.

Is my understanding correct?

and these deployment stacks created at resource group level or subscription level?

Stanislav Zhelyazkov 29,826 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-05-13T05:29:33.8533333+00:00

Yes. Deployment stacks commands for deployment are similar to regular deployment commands. When you execute the deployment at resource group scope the deployment stack will be created at resource group scope as well. If you deploy the deployment stack at subscription scope it will be created at subscription scope.