Azure Arc
Organizations increasingly utilize a hybrid cloud infrastructure in today’s complex IT landscape. However, managing such dispersed environments can be challenging, especially when enforcing security standards and policies. Fortunately, Microsoft’s Azure Arc offers a solution by extending Azure policy and management beyond the confines of Azure. In this blog post, we delve into Azure Arc and demonstrate how it can be used to manage the Windows Firewall status of non-Azure servers.
Azure Arc is a technology from Microsoft that enables organizations to manage their on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge locations via the Azure Portal. With Azure Arc, you can extend Azure services and management anywhere, giving you consistent, automated management capabilities.
Azure Policy is an (Azure) service that allows you to create and apply policy rules that enforce your resources to meet certain standards and regulations. One of the powerful features of Azure Arc is the ability to apply Azure policy to servers and Kubernetes clusters running outside of Azure.
Enforcing the Windows Firewall always to be turned on an Azure Arc-enabled server
Let’s take an example to demonstrate this concept. Suppose you have an on-premises server running in your own data center, and you want to ensure that the Windows Firewall is always on to protect your system from unwanted access. Typically, this might require you to implement a separate management and policy framework, but with Azure Arc, you can use Azure Policy.
Here is an example where we create an Azure Arc-enabled server and apply an Azure policy that enforces the Windows Firewall to always be on.
az login
# Create a resource group
az group create –name MyResourceGroup –location EastUS
# Create an Arc-enabled server
az connectedmachine connect –resource-group MyResourceGroup –name MyServer –location EastUS –client-id “
# Define the policy rule
policyRule='{
“if”: {
“field”: “Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines/extensions.settings.firewallStatus”,
“notEquals”: “On”
},
“then”: {
“effect”: “audit”
}
}’
# Create the policy
az policy definition create –name ‘audit-firewall-status’ –mode All –rules “$policyRule”
# Assign the policy to the resource group
az policy assignment create –name ‘audit-firewall-status’ –policy ‘audit-firewall-status’ –resource-group MyResourceGroup
In this example, we first create an Azure Arc-enabled server. The az connectedmachine connect command connects a machine outside of Azure (a “Connected Machine”) to Azure Arc. Then we define a policy rule that checks if the Windows Firewall status is “On” and create the policy. Finally, we assign the policy to the resource group that contains the Azure Arc-enabled server.
If the Windows Firewall on the Azure Arc-enabled server is turned off for any reason, Azure Policy will record this as a non-compliance event.
Tips for Using Azure Arc with Azure Policy
Here are some tips for successfully using Azure Arc and Azure Policy:
- Secure your Arc-enabled servers: Ensure that your Azure Arc-enabled servers are well-secured, not just at the firewall level but also regarding system updates and patching, network security, and other security aspects
- Monitor policy compliance: Azure Policy makes it easy to monitor the compliance of your policies. You can use the Azure Policy compliance report to check the compliance status of your policies
- Stay updated with new features and updates: Azure Arc is a rapidly evolving product, so it’s important to stay informed about new features and updates that Microsoft releases
Conclusion
Azure Arc simplifies the management of hybrid cloud environments and makes them more secure by extending Azure policy and management beyond Azure. Whether you’re looking for a way to run Azure services on non-Azure servers or to apply consistent security policies across your entire IT landscape, Azure Arc can be a valuable part of your IT toolkit.
This is a simple example of using Azure Arc with Azure Policy. There are many other possibilities, such as managing Kubernetes clusters with Azure Arc, using Azure Arc-enabled data services, and much more.
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