Tutorial / Cram Notes
Azure Policy evaluates resources in Azure by comparing the properties of those resources with business rules, as defined in policies, to look for violations. Once a policy or a group of policies is created, it can be assigned to specific scopes, such as management groups, subscriptions, resource groups, or individual resources.
A policy definition contains the following elements:
- Policy Rule: This is the logic that evaluates the resource.
- Parameters: These reduce the need for multiple policy definitions by allowing you to input specific values during assignment.
- Effect: This determines what happens when a policy rule is matched (e.g., deny the resource, audit if it exists, or append additional configurations).
Azure Policy supports several types of effects that can be applied when a policy rule is matched:
- Deny: Blocks the resource from being created or updated.
- Audit: Generates a warning event in the activity log but doesn’t prevent the resource action.
- Append: Adds additional parameters or fields to the resource when it is being created or updated.
- AuditIfNotExists: Audits if a specific condition is not present.
- DeployIfNotExists: Deploys a resource if it does not already exist.
- Disabled: No effect on the resources; the policy is effectively turned off.
Example of Azure Policy Usage
Imagine an organization that needs to ensure all their virtual machines (VMs) are not exposed publicly. They could create a policy definition that denies public IP addresses from being associated with VMs. The rule would look for a public IP resource connected to a VM, and if found, the effect would deny the operation.
Compliance in Azure Policy
A key feature of Azure Policy is compliance assessment. The compliance dashboard in the Azure Policy center provides an aggregated view of the overall compliance state of the resources based on the assigned policies. It helps users quickly identify non-compliant resources and take appropriate actions.
Initiatives in Azure Policy
Initiatives are collections of policy definitions that are tailored towards achieving a particular overarching goal. Initiatives simplify the management of related policies by grouping them together. For example, an initiative for “Identity and Access Management” might include policies that enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on accounts with access to sensitive data, and that audit the use of legacy authentication protocols.
Azure Policy in the Context of the SC-900 Exam
For the SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals exam, it is important to understand the purpose and functionality of Azure Policy. The exam may cover topics such as:
- Describing what Azure Policy is and its use cases
- Knowing how to implement and manage Azure Policy
- Understanding the different types of policy effects
- How to interpret and take action on compliance data from Azure Policy
- The role of initiatives in Azure Policy management
Azure Policy plays a significant role in ensuring that Azure environments align with security best practices, company standards, and regulatory requirements. It is an essential tool for governance and compliance in the Azure cloud, enabling organizations to automate and enforce policies across their Azure workloads.
Practice Test with Explanation
True or False: Azure Policy allows you to create, assign, and manage policies to enforce different rules and effects over your resources.
- Answer: True
Azure Policy helps you manage and prevent IT issues with its policy-driven governance by creating, assigning, and managing policies.
What is the primary function of Azure Policy?
- a) To manage virtual machines
- b) To enforce organizational standards and to assess compliance at scale
- c) To provide network security
- d) To monitor service health
Correct Answer: b) To enforce organizational standards and to assess compliance at scale
Azure Policy is designed to enforce organizational standards and assess compliance at scale across resources.
True or False: Azure Policy can automatically resolve violations by creating a remediation task.
- Answer: True
Azure Policy offers the ability to automatically remediate non-compliant resources through remediation tasks.
Which of the following can Azure Policies be applied to?
- a) Resource groups
- b) Subscriptions
- c) Management groups
- d) All of the above
Correct Answer: d) All of the above
Azure Policies can be applied at different scopes including resource groups, subscriptions, and management groups.
True or False: Azure Policy only audits resources in the location where the policy is applied.
- Answer: False
Azure Policy can audit resources across different locations, not just the location where the policy is applied.
Azure Policy’s compliance evaluation happens:
- a) Immediately after assignment
- b) Every 24 hours
- c) In real-time
- d) Weekly
Correct Answer: b) Every 24 hours
Azure Policy performs a default compliance evaluation scan every 24 hours.
True or False: You can use Azure Policy as a security layer to block certain resources from being deployed.
- Answer: True
Azure Policy can be set to a “deny” effect, which acts as a security layer to prevent prohibited resources from being deployed.
Which of the following features does Azure Policy include?
- a) Policy definitions
- b) Policy assignments
- c) Policy parameters
- d) All of the above
Correct Answer: d) All of the above
Azure Policy includes policy definitions, assignments, and parameters as its core features.
True or False: When you assign a policy in Azure Policy, it evaluates all resources within the scope immediately.
- Answer: False
When a policy is assigned, the existing resources are evaluated during the next compliance scan, which happens within 24 hours by default.
Which Azure Policy effect audits whether a resource is compliant but does not enforce the policy?
- a) Deny
- b) Append
- c) Audit
- d) Disable
Correct Answer: c) Audit
The “audit” effect in Azure Policy logs the evaluation outcome but doesn’t enforce the policy.
True or False: Azure Policy initiatives are collections of multiple policy definitions that are tailored to achieve a single overarching goal.
- Answer: True
Initiatives in Azure Policy are indeed collections of policy definitions designed to work towards a larger unified compliance goal or standard.
Compliance results within Azure Policy are available in which of the following formats?
- a) JSON
- b) XML
- c) HTML
- d) CSV
Correct Answer: a) JSON
The compliance details in Azure Policy are made available in JSON format for further analysis and reporting.
Interview Questions
What is Azure Policy?
Azure Policy is a service in Azure that enables the governance, management, and compliance of resources in Azure.
How does Azure Policy work?
Azure Policy works by allowing administrators to create policies that enforce rules and regulations for resources in Azure. These policies can be applied to individual resources, resource groups, or entire subscriptions.
What are the benefits of using Azure Policy?
Azure Policy provides a consistent way to enforce policies across all resources in Azure.
It helps to ensure that resources are deployed and configured according to best practices and organizational policies.
Azure Policy helps to identify resources that are not in compliance with organizational policies.
What are the components of Azure Policy?
Azure Policy has three main components definitions, assignments, and exemptions.
What is an Azure Policy definition?
An Azure Policy definition is a collection of conditions that are used to evaluate resources in Azure.
What is an Azure Policy assignment?
An Azure Policy assignment is the process of assigning a policy definition to a specific scope in Azure, such as a resource group or subscription.
What is an Azure Policy exemption?
An Azure Policy exemption is a way to temporarily exclude specific resources or resource groups from a policy assignment.
How can Azure Policy be used to enforce governance?
Azure Policy can be used to enforce governance by creating policies that restrict which resources can be created, how they can be created, and how they can be configured.
How can Azure Policy be used to enforce security?
Azure Policy can be used to enforce security by creating policies that ensure that resources are properly secured and that data is protected.
How can Azure Policy be used to enforce compliance?
Azure Policy can be used to enforce compliance by creating policies that ensure that resources meet specific regulatory or organizational compliance requirements.
What are some common scenarios for using Azure Policy?
Enforcing naming conventions for resources
Enforcing security requirements for resources
Enforcing compliance requirements for resources
Enforcing tagging requirements for resources
Enforcing network security requirements for resources
Can Azure Policy be used with other Azure services?
Yes, Azure Policy can be used with other Azure services, such as Azure Resource Manager, Azure Security Center, and Azure Blueprint.
Is Azure Policy a free service?
Yes, Azure Policy is a free service. However, there may be costs associated with using Azure Policy to evaluate and enforce policies.
What are some best practices for using Azure Policy?
Create policies that are specific to your organization’s needs.
Use policy initiatives to group related policies together.
Use parameters to make policies more flexible.
Test policies before assigning them to a production environment.
Monitor policy compliance and make adjustments as needed.
How can I get started with Azure Policy?
You can get started with Azure Policy by creating a policy definition, creating a policy assignment, and monitoring policy compliance. The Azure Policy documentation provides detailed instructions and tutorials to help you get started.
Azure Policy is a service in Azure that you can use to create, assign, and manage policies. These policies enforce different rules and actions over your resources so those resources stay compliant.
Can someone explain how Azure Policy differs from Azure Blueprints?
Thanks for the explanation!
In my experience, tagging policies across multiple subscriptions has been quite useful. Anyone else using it like this?
One of the issues I’ve encountered with Azure Policy is a lag in policy enforcement during the initial assignment. Anyone faced the same?
I appreciate this blog post!
For SC-900, knowing policy aliases can be very helpful. They allow you to scope your policy to specific properties.
I think Azure Policy is overly complicated and needs better documentation.