Azure policy to enforce naming convention on resource group has no effect

Question

I have got the following very basic policy that aims to enforce a naming convention on new resource groups.

{
  "mode": "All",
  "policyRule": {
    "if": {
      "allOf": [
        {
          "field": "type",
          "equals": "Microsoft.Resources/resourceGroups"
        },
        {
          "field": "name",
          "notLike": "rg-*"
        }
      ]
    },
    "then": {
      "effect": "deny"
    }
  },
  "parameters": {}
}

The policy is assigned at the subscription level, and policy enforcement = enabled. There are no exclusions and as you can see from the policy the effect is set to deny.

However, this policy simply does not have any effect. I am able to create new resource groups with names like noncompliant, ... at will. Also, I have waited for more than 30min for the policy to take effect (actually I waited for more than 24h).

Interestingly enough, the following policy takes effect (almost immediately after assigning), where the only difference is the comparison on the resource type.

{
  "mode": "All",
  "policyRule": {
    "if": {
      "allOf": [
        {
          "field": "type",
          "equals": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks"
        },
        {
          "field": "name",
          "notLike": "vnet-*"
        }
      ]
    },
    "then": {
      "effect": "deny"
    }
  },
  "parameters": {}
}

I really don't get what's going wrong here. Anything special about resource groups in the context of policies I haven't come across yet?

Matthias Güntert Matthias Güntert · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-11T20:29:09

I figured it out by looking at a built-in policy dealing with resource groups. Actually the string a compared against was wrong. The following policy works...

{
  "mode": "All",
  "policyRule": {
    "if": {
      "allOf": [
        {
          "field": "type",
          "equals": "Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups"
        },
        {
          "field": "name",
          "notLike": "rg-*"
        }
      ]
    },
    "then": {
      "effect": "deny"
    }
  },
  "parameters": {}
}

In case anyone is looking for a turnkey-ready solution have a look at my azure-naming-convention-initiative, which is basically a collection of policies to enforce Microsofts naming convention recommendation.

Azure policy to enforce naming convention on resource group has no effect

1 Answers