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Control Savings Plan Creation in Azure with Management Groups

As organizations strive to optimize their cloud spending, controlling the creation of savings plans in Azure becomes essential. A savings plan can significantly reduce cloud costs, but without proper governance, unauthorized plans could lead to security vulnerabilities and budgetary overruns. Thankfully, Azure Management Groups provide a structured way to deploy governance policies across multiple subscriptions. This article explores how to effectively restrict savings plan creation using Management Groups.

Understanding Azure Management Groups

Azure Management Groups allow IT admins to organize and apply governance policies across Azure subscriptions. By structuring your Azure resources into a hierarchy, you can apply policies at various levels, ensuring compliance and a consistent environment across all your operations. Key benefits of using Management Groups include:

• Centralized Management: Simplifies administrative tasks by enabling centralized control over resources.
• Policy Enforcement: Apply Azure Policy controls broadly, ensuring every resource meets specific compliance standards.
• Scalability: Management Groups can span across multiple subscriptions, which makes scaling easier.

Restricting Savings Plan Creation

Let’s dive into the process of restricting savings plan creation outside a specified subscription using Azure Management Groups.

Step 1: Create a Management Group

# Create a new management group using Azure CLI
az account management-group create --name ""

Replace <ManagementGroupName> with your desired management group name.

Step 2: Organize Subscriptions

Identify which subscriptions should allow savings plan creation and add them to the appropriate management group:

# Add a subscription to the management group
az account management-group subscription add --name "" --subscription ""

Replace <SubscriptionID> with the ID of the subscription you wish to manage.

Step 3: Implement Policy for Restricting Savings Plans

Create a policy definition that prevents the creation of savings plans outside of approved subscriptions:

{
  "if": {
    "allOf": [
      {
        "field": "type",
        "equals": "Microsoft.Compute/SavingsPlans"
      },
      {
        "field": "subscriptionId",
        "notIn": [
          "/subscriptions/"
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "then": {
    "effect": "deny"
  }
}

Replace <ApprovedSubscriptionID> with the IDs of subscriptions where savings plans are allowed.

Assign the policy to the management group:

az policy assignment create --policy "" --name "" --scope "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/"

Customize <PolicyName> and <PolicyAssignmentName> as per your requirements.

Best Practices

• Authorization: Ensure that only key personnel have roles and permissions to modify policies and management groups.
• Regular Audits: Conduct periodic audits to ensure compliance and adherence to governance policies.
• Document Policies: Keep documentation updated for all policies and processes related to Azure Management Groups and savings plans.

FAQs

1. What are Azure Management Groups?

Azure Management Groups are containers that help organize and apply policies across multiple Azure subscriptions. They facilitate centralized governance and compliance management.

2. How do Management Groups improve cloud governance?

By allowing you to apply policies across subscriptions in a structured manner, Management Groups help maintain compliance and standardized environments throughout your cloud infrastructure.

3. Can I apply a savings plan policy to a single subscription?

Yes, while Management Groups are generally used for multiple subscriptions, you can apply policies to a specific subscription by targeting its unique subscription ID.

4. What happens if a policy denies a savings plan creation request?

The request to create a savings plan will be rejected, and no savings plan will be set up, ensuring adherence to your defined governance policy.

5. How often should I update my governance policies?

Governance policies should be reviewed and updated periodically based on organizational changes, new regulatory requirements, or security considerations.

In conclusion, using Azure Management Groups to control savings plan creation is a pivotal step in ensuring that your cloud infrastructure remains cost-effective and secure. Proper implementation guarantees that only authorized subscriptions can create savings plans, helping manage costs and reduce potential risks.

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Learn more about Azure Management Groups