Announcement

Turbot supports Azure VM management

Building on Turbot's versatile Guardrails to support Microsoft Azure, Turbot now offers Guardrails to manage Linux Virtual Machines in Microsoft Azure.

Turbot Team
3 min. read - Sep 24, 2018
Building on Turbot's versatile Guardrails to support Microsoft Azure, Turbot now offers Guardrails to manage Linux Virtual Machines in Microsoft Azure.

Turbot, the world leader in Software Defined Operations, continues to offer new Guardrails to ensure that your cloud infrastructure is secure, compliant, scalable, and cost optimized.

Turbot Guardrails automates and enforces a combination of preventive and detective controls that provide Guardrails at the Networking, Infrastructure, Operating System, Database, and Application layers while giving Application Teams direct access and management of their own AWS, Azure, and GCP environments.

With over 1000 Guardrails available to Turbot Guardrails Customers and spring-boarding off of our current support for Linux AWS EC2 instances, Turbot Guardrails now offers Guardrails to support Microsoft Azure Linux Virtual Machines.

The Turbot Guardrails Microsoft Linux Azure Guardrails for Virtual Machines fall into two groups: Connecting to the Linux VM and Linux VM Management

Connecting to the Linux VM

Before Turbot Guardrails can manage a Microsoft Azure Linux VM, it is necessary for the VM to exist in the customer environment and for Turbot Guardrails to establish a secure connection to the VM. The overall connection process works like this:

  • Administrators allow Microsoft Azure VMs to exist through the VM Approved Guardrail.
  • Administrators define the Turbot Guardrails Linux roles (e.g., Linux/Admin, Linux/Owner) to allow users to create Linux VMs.
  • The user creates the VM using a Linux image that Microsoft Azure provides.
  • Turbot Guardrails creates an extension for the VM the user creates.
  • Turbot Guardrails connects to the VM using SSH.

Linux VM Management

After Turbot Guardrails creates a secure connection to the Microsoft Azure Linux VM, the newest Turbot Guardrails offer the following capabilities:

  • User management
  • Patching
  • CIS security hardening
  • Environment and DNS management

User management

The Turbot Guardrails Linux roles apply to users to ensure that only the correct users can create approved VMs. This Guardrail helps organizations ensure that isolated VMs do not exist to provide unauthorized entry points and can help to reduce the cost associated with unmonitored VMs that are never shut down.

Patching

The first time a user creates an approved VM, Turbot Guardrails applies all of the necessary patches to make sure the VM is in the most optimal state. Turbot Guardrails provides a Guardrail to schedule Linux VM patching to automate the process to update the VM to its best possible state.

CIS security hardening

Turbot Guardrails places a premium on security and now provides a Guardrail to apply CIS hardening to VMs. Administrators can apply the CIS hardening to individual VMs or at any level in the Turbot Guardrails hierarchy.

Environment and DNS management

Turbot Guardrails offers a Guardrail to configure the DNS search suffix to target the Microsoft Azure virtual network where the VM resides. After reboot, the DNS search suffix adheres to the VM instance in the virtual network. Turbot Guardrails also updates timezone settings and other environment variables to ensure optimum VM availability and configuration.

Learn more

To learn more about Turbot Guardrails Microsoft Azure VM Guardrails, schedule a demo to see how Turbot Guardrails can automate operations, security, and compliance of your cloud environment or contact us to learn more.