An Azure Subscriptions is the logical entity that provides the entitlement to deploy and consume Azure resources. Each Subscription must be associated with one (and only one) Azure Active Directory “tenant” which supports the users of the Subscription. Azure Management Groups provide governance of the Subscription as described in Microsoft’s support article What are Azure management groups?
In the context of Nebula, Azure Subscriptions are provisioned to Organizations, which define the billing entity to which usage is assigned. Nebula does not provide any management or control of the Azure Subscription itself. Once provisioned, the Azure Subscription must be transferred into an Azure Active Directory which then controls the Subscription as described above. Nebula only maintains the billing hierarchy – Azure Subscriptions cannot be deleted from Nebula and remain associated with the Organization indefinitely.
When allocating a Subscription to an Organization, the User must provides a valid email address for the initial “owner” of the Subscription who will transfer the Subscription into the target Azure Active Directory. The email address is added with the “owner” role onto the assigned subscription, and the subscription info is provided to the recipient. All Subscriptions must be transferred into a target Azure Active Directory prior to use.
The email address performing the transfer must belong to a user with the necessary rights in the Target Azure Active Directory to transfer the Subscription. However, note that different Subscriptions associated with the Organization do not need to use the same target Azure Active Directory. Once transferred, Nebula does not control the Subscription or track how it is being used – it merely gathers usage on a monthly basis, aggregates the usage with other Subscriptions in the Organization, and delivers the results through the Reporting function.
There are two types of Subscriptions available within Nebula. The standard Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, or “Pay-as-You-Go” Subscription, which is selected by default, and the Enterprise Dev/Test Subscription which has specific requirements in terms of Visual Studio licenses and use restrictions.
A Provisioning Entity must be enabled for assigning Dev/Test Subscriptions to an Organization. Otherwise, the ability to create a Dev/Test Subscription will not be visible.