AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Exam

Policy-Driven Network Management

Azure Virtual Network Manager uses Azure Policy to enforce and automate network configurations across multiple subscriptions and regions. Policy definitions are JSON rules that check and modify properties of network resources, ensuring they meet organizational standards. By applying policies at different scopes like management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups, teams can maintain consistent settings. Azure Policy evaluates resources at deployment time and can trigger changes if resources drift from the defined state. This mechanism reduces manual work and helps with compliance and governance in large environments.

One of the core features in Azure Virtual Network Manager is dynamic membership in network groups, driven by Conditional statements within policy definitions. For example, you can define rules based on tags, regions, or resource types to automatically include or exclude virtual networks from a group. This approach eliminates the need for manual group updates and allows network configurations to adapt as environments change. This dynamic process keeps group membership always up to date.
Here are typical membership criteria:

• Resources tagged for a specific project or environment
• Virtual networks located in certain regions
• Networks using specific address prefixes

Network groups act as logical containers that let you apply configurations and security rules uniformly across many virtual networks. You can manage these groups manually or through policy using the addToNetworkGroup effect in a policy definition. This effect ensures that when a network matches the defined criteria, it is programmatically added to the correct group. These settings help maintain network consistency across large deployments.
Common configurations include:

• Security rules for network traffic
• Routing configurations for consistent traffic flows
• Baseline configurations for compliance

Complex cloud environments often require specialized rules, which is where Custom policy definitions come into play. You can write custom policies targeting specific resource providers such as Microsoft.Network.Data. These policies let you enforce advanced rules that are not covered by built-in definitions. By tailoring policies to your exact needs, you ensure all virtual networks—no matter how unique—adhere to internal standards and external regulations.

Once policies are defined, policy assignments deploy them to the chosen scope. An assignment links a policy definition to a scope such as a subscription or resource group. Upon assignment, Azure Policy evaluates all existing resources within that scope and reports compliance. This process ensures ongoing enforcement, catching any drift from the desired state. Reusing policy definitions across multiple assignments improves governance and simplifies management at scale.

Conclusion

In this section, we saw how Azure Virtual Network Manager leverages Azure Policy to automate network security, enforce consistent configurations, and maintain compliance across subscriptions and regions. We explored dynamic membership with Conditional statements, the role of network groups, the use of Custom policy definitions, and the importance of policy assignments. Together, these tools provide a robust framework for managing and securing virtual networks at scale.