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Global Settings

Overview

global-settings.jsonc has following sections explained below:

  • telemetryOptOut if set to true disables the collection of usage date for the EPAC repo. The default is false. See Usage Tracking for more information.
  • pacOwnerId uniquely identifies deployments from a specific repo. We recommend using a GUID.
  • pacEnvironments defines the EPAC environments.

Example with Required Elements

{
    "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/enterprise-azure-policy-as-code/main/Schemas/global-settings-schema.json",
    "pacOwnerId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "pacEnvironments": [
        {
            "pacSelector": "epac-dev",
            "cloud": "AzureCloud",
            "tenantId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "deploymentRootScope": "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/mg-Epac-Dev",
            "desiredState": {
                "strategy": "full",
                "keepDfcSecurityAssignments": false,
                "doNotDisableDeprecatedPolicies": false
            },
            "managedIdentityLocation": "eastus2"
        },
        {
            "pacSelector": "tenant",
            "cloud": "AzureCloud",
            "tenantId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "deploymentRootScope": "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/mg-Enterprise",
            "desiredState": {
                "strategy": "full",
                "keepDfcSecurityAssignments": false,
                "doNotDisableDeprecatedPolicies": false
            },
            "managedIdentityLocation": "eastus2",
            "globalNotScopes": [
                "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/mg-Epac-Dev"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

JSON Schema

The GitHub repo contains a JSON schema which can be used in tools such as VS Code to provide code completion.

To utilize the schema add a $schema tag to the JSON file.

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/enterprise-azure-policy-as-code/main/Schemas/global-settings-schema.json"
}

Opt out of telemetry data collection telemetryOptOut

Starting with v8.0.0, Enterprise Policy as Code (EPAC) is tracking the usage using Customer Usage Attribution (PID). See Usage Tracking for more information on opt out. Default is false.

"telemetryOptOut": true,

Uniquely identify deployments with pacOwnerId

pacOwnerId is required for desired state handling to distinguish Policy resources deployed via this EPAC repo, legacy technology, another EPAC repo, or another Policy as Code solution.

Define EPAC Environments in pacEnvironments

EPAC has a concept of an environment identified by a string (unique per repository) called pacSelector. The pacSelector is just a name. We highly recommend to call the Policy development environment epac-dev, you can name the EPAC prod environments in a way which makes sense to you in your environment. We use tenant, in our samples and documentation. These names are used and therefore must match:

  • Defining the association (pacEnvironments) of an EPAC environment.
  • Script parameter when executing different deployment stages in a CI/CD pipeline or semi-automated deployment targeting a specific EPAC environments.
  • scopes, notScopes, additionalRoleAssignments, managedIdentityLocations, and userAssignedIdentity definitions in Policy Assignment JSON files.

pacEnvironments entries associate:

  • Required:
  • pacSelector: the logical name of the EPAC environment.
  • cloud: select cloud environments.
  • tenantId: enables multi-tenant scenarios.
  • deploymentRootScope: the deployment scope for Policy and Policy Set definitions. Policy Assignments can only defined at this scope and child scopes (recursive).
  • desiredState: defines the desired state strategy.
  • managedIdentityLocation: see DeployIfNotExists and Modify Policy Assignments need managedIdentityLocation
  • Optional:
  • globalNotScopes: see Excluding scopes for all Assignments with globalNotScopes
  • skipResourceValidationForExemptions: disables checking the resource existence for Policy Exemptions. Default is false. This can be useful if you have a massive amount of exemptions and the validation is taking too long.
  • doNotDisableDeprecatedPolicies: NOT YET IMPLEMENTED: Planed feature will automatically set effect for deprecated Policies to "Disabled" when using the CSV file. This setting can be used to override that behavior by setting it to true. Default is false.
  • deployedBy: populates the metadata fields. It defaults to epac/$pacOwnerId/$pacSelector. We recommend to use the default.
    • Policy Definitions, Policy Set Definitions and Policy Exemptions - metadata.deployedBy.
    • Policy Assignments - metadata.assignedBy since Azure Portal displays it as 'Assigned by'.
    • Role Assignments - add the value to the description field since Role assignments do not contain metadata.
  • managedTenant: Used when the pacEnvironment is in a lighthouse managed tenant, see this example It must contain:
    • managingTenantId - The tenantId of the managing tenant.
    • managingTenantRootScope - An array of all subscriptions that will need additionalRoleAssignments deployed to them.
  • defaultContext: In rare cases (typically only when deploying to a lighthouse managed tenant) the default context (Get-azContext) of a user/SPN running a plan will
    be set to a subscription where that user/SPN does not have sufficient privileges. Some checks have been built in so that in some cases when this happens EPAC is able to fix the context issue. When it is not, a defaultContext subscription name must be provided. This can be any subscription within the deploymentRootScope.

DeployIfNotExists and Modify Policy Assignments need managedIdentityLocation

Policies with Modify and DeployIfNotExists effects require a Managed Identity for the remediation task. This section defines the location of the managed identity. It is often created in the tenant's primary location. This location can be overridden in the Policy Assignment files. The star in the example matches all pacEnvironmentSelector values.

    "managedIdentityLocation": {
        "*": "eastus2"
    },

Excluding scopes for all Assignments with globalNotScopes

The arrays can have the following entries:

Scope type Example
managementGroups "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/myManagementGroupId"
subscriptions "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-000000000000"
resourceGroups "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/myResourceGroup"
Resource group pattern "/subscriptions/*/resourceGroups/myResourceGroupPattern*"

Resource Group patterns allow us to exclude "special" managed Resource Groups. The exclusion is not dynamic. It is calculated when the deployment scripts execute.

"globalNotScopes": [
    "/subscriptions/*/resourceGroups/synapseworkspace-managedrg-*",
    "/subscriptions/*/resourceGroups/managed-rg-*",
    "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/mg-personal-subscriptions",
    "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/mg-policy-as-code"
]

Example for Lighthouse Manged Tenant

{
    "pacOwnerId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "pacEnvironments": [
        {
            "pacSelector": "epac-dev",
            "cloud": "AzureCloud",
            "tenantId": "11000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "deploymentRootScope": "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/PAC-Heinrich-Dev",
            "desiredState": {
                "strategy": "full",
                "keepDfcSecurityAssignments": false,
                "doNotDisableDeprecatedPolicies": false
            },
            "mangedIdentityLocation": "eastus2"
        },
        {
            "pacSelector": "tenant",
            "cloud": "AzureCloud",
            "tenantId": "11000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "deploymentRootScope": "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/Contoso-Root",
            "desiredState": {
                "strategy": "full",
                "keepDfcSecurityAssignments": false,
                "doNotDisableDeprecatedPolicies": false
            },
            "globalNotScopes": [
                "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/PAC-Heinrich-Dev"
            ],
            "managedIdentityLocation": "eastus2"
        },
        {
            "pacSelector": "lightHouseTenant",
            "cloud": "AzureCloud",
            "tenantId": "22000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "managingTenant": {
                "managingTenantId": "11000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
                "managingTenantRootScope": [
                    "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
                    "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
                ]
            },
            "deploymentRootScope": "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/Contoso-Root",
            "desiredState": {
                "strategy": "full",
                "keepDfcSecurityAssignments": false,
                "doNotDisableDeprecatedPolicies": false
            },
            "managedIdentityLocation": "eastus2"
        }
    ]
}