Tutorial: Protect new resources with Azure Blueprints resource locks

Article
09/07/2023

Important

On July 11, 2026, Blueprints (Preview) will be deprecated. Migrate your existing blueprint definitions and assignments to Template Specs and Deployment Stacks. Blueprint artifacts are to be converted to ARM JSON templates or Bicep files used to define deployment stacks. To learn how to author an artifact as an ARM resource, see:

With Azure Blueprints resource locks, you can protect newly deployed resources from being tampered with, even by an account with the Owner role. You can add this protection in the blueprint definitions of resources created by an Azure Resource Manager template (ARM template) artifact. The Blueprint resource lock is set during blueprint assignment.

In this tutorial, you'll complete these steps:

Create a blueprint definition
Mark your blueprint definition as Published
Assign your blueprint definition to an existing subscription (set resource locks)
Inspect the new resource group
Unassign the blueprint to remove the locks

Prerequisites

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Create a blueprint definition

First, create the blueprint definition.

Select All services in the left pane. Search for and select Blueprints.
On the Getting started page on the left, select Create under Create a blueprint.
Find the Blank Blueprint blueprint sample at the top of the page. Select Start with blank blueprint.
Enter this information on the Basics tab:
- Blueprint name: Provide a name for your copy of the blueprint sample. For this tutorial, we'll use the name locked-storageaccount.
- Blueprint description: Add a description for the blueprint definition. Use For testing blueprint resource locking on deployed resources.
- Definition location: Select the ellipsis button (...) and then select the management group or subscription to save your blueprint definition to.
Select the Artifacts tab at the top of the page, or select Next: Artifacts at the bottom of the page.
Add a resource group at the subscription level:
1. Select the Add artifact row under Subscription.
2. Select Resource Group under Artifact type.
3. Set the Artifact display name to RGtoLock.
4. Leave the Resource Group Name and Location boxes blank, but make sure the check box is selected on each property to make them dynamic parameters.
5. Select Add to add the artifact to the blueprint.

Add a template under the resource group:

Select the Add artifact row under the RGtoLock entry.
Select Azure Resource Manager template under Artifact type, set Artifact display name to StorageAccount, and leave Description blank.
On the Template tab, paste the following ARM template into the editor box. After you paste in the template, select Add to add the artifact to the blueprint.

Note

This step defines the resources to be deployed that get locked by the Blueprint resource lock, but doesn't include the Blueprint resource locks. Blueprint resource locks are set as a parameter of the blueprint assignment.

{
    "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
    "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
    "parameters": {
        "storageAccountType": {
            "type": "string",
            "defaultValue": "Standard_LRS",
            "allowedValues": [
                "Standard_LRS",
                "Standard_GRS",
                "Standard_ZRS",
                "Premium_LRS"
            ],
            "metadata": {
                "description": "Storage Account type"
            }
        }
    },
    "variables": {
        "storageAccountName": "[concat('store', uniquestring(resourceGroup().id))]"
    },
    "resources": [{
        "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts",
        "name": "[variables('storageAccountName')]",
        "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
        "apiVersion": "2018-07-01",
        "sku": {
            "name": "[parameters('storageAccountType')]"
        },
        "kind": "StorageV2",
        "properties": {}
    }],
    "outputs": {
        "storageAccountName": {
            "type": "string",
            "value": "[variables('storageAccountName')]"
        }
    }
}

Select Save Draft at the bottom of the page.

This step creates the blueprint definition in the selected management group or subscription.

After the Saving blueprint definition succeeded portal notification appears, go to the next step.

Publish the blueprint definition

Your blueprint definition has now been created in your environment. It's created in Draft mode and must be published before it can be assigned and deployed.

Select All services in the left pane. Search for and select Blueprints.
Select the Blueprint definitions page on the left. Use the filters to find the locked-storageaccount blueprint definition, and then select it.
Select Publish blueprint at the top of the page. In the new pane on the right, enter 1.0 as the Version. This property is useful if you make a change later. Enter Change notes, such as First version published for locking blueprint deployed resources. Then select Publish at the bottom of the page.

This step makes it possible to assign the blueprint to a subscription. After the blueprint definition is published, you can still make changes. If you make changes, you need to publish the definition with a new version value to track differences between versions of the same blueprint definition.

After the Publishing blueprint definition succeeded portal notification appears, go to the next step.

Assign the blueprint definition

After the blueprint definition is published, you can assign it to a subscription within the management group where you saved it. In this step, you provide parameters to make each deployment of the blueprint definition unique.

Select All services in the left pane. Search for and select Blueprints.
Select the Blueprint definitions page on the left. Use the filters to find the locked-storageaccount blueprint definition, and then select it.
Select Assign blueprint at the top of the blueprint definition page.

Provide the parameter values for the blueprint assignment:

Basics
- Subscriptions: Select one or more of the subscriptions that are in the management group where you saved your blueprint definition. If you select more than one subscription, an assignment will be created for each subscription, using the parameters you enter.
- Assignment name: The name is pre-populated based on the name of the blueprint definition. We want this assignment to represent locking the new resource group, so change the assignment name to assignment-locked-storageaccount-TestingBPLocks.
- Location: Select a region in which to create the managed identity. Azure Blueprints uses this managed identity to deploy all artifacts in the assigned blueprint. To learn more, see managed identities for Azure resources. For this tutorial, select East US 2.
- Blueprint definition version: Select the published version 1.0 of the blueprint definition.
Lock Assignment

Select the Read Only blueprint lock mode. For more information, see blueprints resource locking.

Note

This step configures the Blueprint resource lock on the newly deployed resources.
Managed Identity

Use the default option: System assigned. For more information, see managed identities.

Artifact parameters

The parameters defined in this section apply to the artifact under which they're defined. These parameters are dynamic parameters because they're defined during the assignment of the blueprint. For each artifact, set the parameter value to what you see in the Value column.

Artifact name	Artifact type	Parameter name	Value	Description
RGtoLock resource group	Resource group	Name	TestingBPLocks	Defines the name of the new resource group to apply blueprint locks to.
RGtoLock resource group	Resource group	Location	West US 2	Defines the location of the new resource group to apply blueprint locks to.
StorageAccount	Resource Manager template	storageAccountType (StorageAccount)	Standard_GRS	The storage SKU. The default value is Standard_LRS.

After you've entered all parameters, select Assign at the bottom of the page.

This step deploys the defined resources and configures the selected Lock Assignment. It can take up to 30 minutes to apply blueprint locks.

After the Assigning blueprint definition succeeded portal notification appears, go to the next step.

Inspect resources deployed by the assignment

The assignment creates the resource group TestingBPLocks and the storage account deployed by the ARM template artifact. The new resource group and the selected lock state are shown on the assignment details page.

Select All services in the left pane. Search for and select Blueprints.
Select the Assigned blueprints page on the left. Use the filters to find the assignment-locked-storageaccount-TestingBPLocks blueprint assignment, and then select it.

From this page, we can see that the assignment succeeded and that the resources were deployed with the new blueprint lock state. If the assignment is updated, the Assignment operation dropdown list shows details about the deployment of each definition version. You can select the resource group to open the property page.
Select the TestingBPLocks resource group.
Select the Access control (IAM) page on the left. Then select the Role assignments tab.

Here we see that the assignment-locked-storageaccount-TestingBPLocks blueprint assignment has the Owner role. It has this role because this role was used to deploy and lock the resource group.
Select the Deny assignments tab.

The blueprint assignment created a deny assignment on the deployed resource group to enforce the Read Only blueprint lock mode. The deny assignment prevents someone with appropriate rights on the Role assignments tab from taking specific actions. The deny assignment affects All principals.

For information about excluding a principal from a deny assignment, see blueprints resource locking.
Select the deny assignment, and then select the Denied Permissions page on the left.

The deny assignment is preventing all operations with the * and Action configuration, but it allows read access by excluding */read via NotActions.
In the Azure portal breadcrumb, select TestingBPLocks - Access control (IAM). Then select the Overview page on the left and then the Delete resource group button. Enter the name TestingBPLocks to confirm the delete and then select Delete at the bottom of the pane.

The portal notification Delete resource group TestingBPLocks failed appears. The error states that although your account has permission to delete the resource group, access is denied by the blueprint assignment. Remember that we selected the Read Only blueprint lock mode during blueprint assignment. The blueprint lock prevents an account with permission, even Owner, from deleting the resource. For more information, see blueprints resource locking.

These steps show that our deployed resources are now protected with blueprint locks that prevent unwanted deletion, even from an account that has permission to delete the resources.

Unassign the blueprint

The last step is to remove the assignment of the blueprint definition. Removing the assignment doesn't remove the associated artifacts.

Select All services in the left pane. Search for and select Blueprints.
Select the Assigned blueprints page on the left. Use the filters to find the assignment-locked-storageaccount-TestingBPLocks blueprint assignment, and then select it.
Select Unassign blueprint at the top of the page. Read the warning in the confirmation dialog box, and then select OK.

When the blueprint assignment is removed, the blueprint locks are also removed. The resources can once again be deleted by an account with appropriate permissions.
Select Resource groups from the Azure menu, and then select TestingBPLocks.
Select the Access control (IAM) page on the left and then select the Role assignments tab.

The security for the resource group shows that the blueprint assignment no longer has Owner access.

After the Removing blueprint assignment succeeded portal notification appears, go to the next step.

Clean up resources

When you're finished with this tutorial, delete these resources:

Resource group TestingBPLocks
Blueprint definition locked-storageaccount

Next steps

In this tutorial, you've learned how to protect new resources deployed with Azure Blueprints. To learn more about Azure Blueprints, continue to the blueprint lifecycle article.

Learn about the blueprint lifecycle

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