azure_long_running_instances

Azure Long Running Instances

What It Does

This policy checks for running instances that have been running longer than the Minimum Age (Days) parameter. It will then take the appropriate action (Power Off/Delete) on the instance.

Input Parameters

This policy template has the following Input parameters which require value before the policy can be applied.

• Email Addresses - Email addresses of the recipients you wish to notify when new incidents are created.
• Azure Endpoint - The endpoint to send Azure API requests to. Recommended to leave this at default unless using this policy with Azure China.
• Minimum Age (Days) - The minimum age, in days, to consider an instance to be long running.
• Allow/Deny Subscriptions - Determines whether the Allow/Deny Subscriptions List parameter functions as an allow list (only providing results for the listed subscriptions) or a deny list (providing results for all subscriptions except for the listed subscriptions).
• Allow/Deny Subscriptions List - A list of allowed or denied Subscription IDs/names. If empty, no filtering will occur and recommendations will be produced for all subscriptions.
• Allow/Deny Regions - Whether to treat Allow/Deny Regions List parameter as allow or deny list. Has no effect if Allow/Deny Regions List is left empty.
• Allow/Deny Regions List - Filter results by region, either only allowing this list or denying it depending on how the above parameter is set. Leave blank to consider all the regions.
• Exclusion Tags - The policy will filter resources containing the specified tags from the results. The following formats are supported:
  • Key - Filter all resources with the specified tag key.
  • Key==Value - Filter all resources with the specified tag key:value pair.
  • Key!=Value - Filter all resources missing the specified tag key:value pair. This will also filter all resources missing the specified tag key.
  • Key=~/Regex/ - Filter all resources where the value for the specified key matches the specified regex string.
  • Key!~/Regex/ - Filter all resources where the value for the specified key does not match the specified regex string. This will also filter all resources missing the specified tag key.
• Exclusion Tags: Any / All - Whether to filter instances containing any of the specified tags or only those that contain all of them. Only applicable if more than one value is entered in the Exclusion Tags field.
• Automatic Actions - The policy will automatically take the selected action.
• Power Off Type - Whether to perform a graceful shutdown or a forced shutdown when powering off idle instances. Only applicable when taking action against instances.

Please note that the "Automatic Actions" parameter contains a list of actions that can be performed on the resources. When it is selected, the policy will automatically execute the corresponding action on the data that failed the checks, post incident generation. Please leave this parameter set to "No Automatic Actions" for manual action. For example if a user selects the "Delete Instances" action while applying the policy, all the resources that didn't satisfy the policy condition will be deleted.

Policy Actions

• Sends an email notification
• Power off virtual machines after approval
• Delete virtual machines after approval

Prerequisites

This Policy Template uses Credentials for authenticating to datasources -- in order to apply this policy you must have a Credential registered in the system that is compatible with this policy. If there are no Credentials listed when you apply the policy, please contact your Flexera Org Admin and ask them to register a Credential that is compatible with this policy. The information below should be consulted when creating the credential(s).

Credential configuration

For administrators creating and managing credentials to use with this policy, the following information is needed:

• Azure Resource Manager Credential (provider=azure_rm) which has the following permissions:

  • Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/read
  • Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/write*

  * Only required for taking action (powering off or deleting); the policy will still function in a read-only capacity without these permissions.

• Flexera Credential (provider=flexera) which has the following roles:

  • billing_center_viewer

The Provider-Specific Credentials page in the docs has detailed instructions for setting up Credentials for the most common providers.

Supported Clouds

This policy template supports the following clouds:

• Azure

Cost

This policy template does not incur any cloud costs.