| title | description | author | ms.service | services | ms.topic | ms.date | ms.author |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Azure Firewall Manager policy overview |
Learn about Azure Firewall Manager policies |
vhorne |
firewall-manager |
firewall-manager |
conceptual |
10/26/2021 |
victorh |
Firewall Policy is the recommended method to configure your Azure Firewall. It's a global resource that can be used across multiple Azure Firewall instances in Secured Virtual Hubs and Hub Virtual Networks. Policies work across regions and subscriptions.
A policy can be created and managed in multiple ways, including the Azure portal, REST API, templates, Azure PowerShell, and CLI.
You can also migrate existing Classic rules from Azure Firewall using the portal or Azure PowerShell to create policies. For more information, see How to migrate Azure Firewall configurations to Azure Firewall policy.
Policies can be associated with one or more virtual hubs or VNets. The firewall can be in any subscription associated with your account and in any region.
Azure Firewall supports both Classic rules and policies, but policies is the recommenced configuration. The following table compares policies and classic rules:
| Subject | Policy | Classic rules |
|---|---|---|
| Contains | NAT, Network, Application rules, custom DNS and DNS proxy settings, IP Groups, and Threat Intelligence settings (including allowlist), IDPS, TLS Inspection, Web Categories, URL Filtering | NAT, Network, and Application rules, custom DNS and DNS proxy settings, IP Groups, and Threat Intelligence settings (including allowlist) |
| Protects | Virtual hubs and Virtual Networks | Virtual Networks only |
| Portal experience | Central management using Firewall Manager | Standalone firewall experience |
| Multiple firewall support | Firewall Policy is a separate resource that can be used across firewalls | Manually export and import rules, or using third-party management solutions |
| Pricing | Billed based on firewall association. See Pricing. | Free |
| Supported deployment mechanisms | Portal, REST API, templates, Azure PowerShell, and CLI | Portal, REST API, templates, PowerShell, and CLI. |
Azure Firewall supports Standard and Premium policies. The following table summarizes the difference between the two:
| Policy type | Feature support | Firewall SKU support |
|---|---|---|
| Standard policy | NAT rules, Network rules, Application rules Custom DNS, DNS proxy IP Groups Web Categories Threat Intelligence |
Standard or Premium |
| Premium policy | All Standard feature support, plus: TLS Inspection Web Categories URL Filtering IDPS |
Premium |
New policies can be created from scratch or inherited from existing policies. Inheritance allows DevOps to create local firewall policies on top of organization mandated base policy.
Policies created with non-empty parent policies inherit all rule collections from the parent policy. Network rule collections inherited from a parent policy are always prioritized above network rule collections defined as part of a new policy. The same logic also applies to application rule collections. However, network rule collections are always processed before application rule collections regardless of inheritance.
Threat Intelligence mode is also inherited from the parent policy. You can set your threat Intelligence mode to a different value to override this behavior, but you can't turn it off. It's only possible to override with a stricter value. For example, if your parent policy is set to Alert only, you can configure this local policy to Alert and deny.
Like Threat Intelligence mode, the Threat Intelligence allowlist is inherited from the parent policy. The child policy can add additional IP addresses to the allowlist.
NAT rule collections aren't inherited because they're specific to a given firewall.
With inheritance, any changes to the parent policy are automatically applied down to associated firewall child policies.
Policies are billed based on firewall associations. A policy with zero or one firewall association is free of charge. A policy with multiple firewall associations is billed at a fixed rate. For more information, see Azure Firewall Manager Pricing.
To learn how to deploy an Azure Firewall, see Tutorial: Secure your cloud network with Azure Firewall Manager using the Azure portal.