Azure Policy Regulatory Compliance controls for Azure SQL Database & SQL Managed Instance
Applies to: 
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Regulatory Compliance in Azure Policy provides Azure created and managed initiative definitions, known as built-ins, for the compliance domains and security controls related to different compliance standards. This page lists the compliance domains and security controls for Azure SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance. You can assign the built-ins for a security control individually to help make your Azure resources compliant with the specific standard.
The title of each built-in policy definition links to the policy definition in the Azure portal. Use the link in the Policy Version column to view the source on the Azure Policy GitHub repo.
Important
Each control is associated with one or more Azure Policy definitions. These policies might help you assess compliance with the control. However, there often isn't a one-to-one or complete match between a control and one or more policies. As such, Compliant in Azure Policy refers only to the policies themselves. This doesn't ensure that you're fully compliant with all requirements of a control. In addition, the compliance standard includes controls that aren't addressed by any Azure Policy definitions at this time. Therefore, compliance in Azure Policy is only a partial view of your overall compliance status. The associations between controls and Azure Policy Regulatory Compliance definitions for these compliance standards can change over time.
The Microsoft cloud security benchmark provides recommendations on how you can secure your cloud solutions on Azure. To see how this service completely maps to the Microsoft cloud security benchmark, see the Azure Security Benchmark mapping files.
To review how the available Azure Policy built-ins for all Azure services map to this compliance standard, see Azure Policy Regulatory Compliance - Microsoft cloud security benchmark.
| Domain | Control ID | Control title | Policy (Azure portal) |
Policy version (GitHub) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network Security | NS-2 | Secure cloud services with network controls | Azure SQL Managed Instances should disable public network access | 1.0.0 |
| Network Security | NS-2 | Secure cloud services with network controls | Private endpoint connections on Azure SQL Database should be enabled | 1.1.0 |
| Network Security | NS-2 | Secure cloud services with network controls | Public network access on Azure SQL Database should be disabled | 1.1.0 |
| Identity Management | IM-1 | Use centralized identity and authentication system | An Azure Active Directory administrator should be provisioned for SQL servers | 1.0.0 |
| Identity Management | IM-1 | Use centralized identity and authentication system | Azure SQL Database should have Microsoft Entra-only authentication enabled | 1.0.0 |
| Identity Management | IM-1 | Use centralized identity and authentication system | Azure SQL Database should have Microsoft Entra-only authentication enabled during creation | 1.2.0 |
| Identity Management | IM-1 | Use centralized identity and authentication system | Azure SQL Managed Instance should have Microsoft Entra-only authentication enabled | 1.0.0 |
| Identity Management | IM-1 | Use centralized identity and authentication system | Azure SQL Managed Instances should have Microsoft Entra-only authentication enabled during creation | 1.2.0 |
| Identity Management | IM-4 | Authenticate server and services | Azure SQL Database should be running TLS version 1.2 or newer | 2.0.0 |
| Data Protection | DP-2 | Monitor anomalies and threats targeting sensitive data | Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected SQL Managed Instances | 1.0.2 |
| Data Protection | DP-3 | Encrypt sensitive data in transit | Azure SQL Database should be running TLS version 1.2 or newer | 2.0.0 |
| Data Protection | DP-4 | Enable data at rest encryption by default | Transparent Data Encryption on SQL databases should be enabled | 2.0.0 |
| Data Protection | DP-5 | Use customer-managed key option in data at rest encryption when required | SQL managed instances should use customer-managed keys to encrypt data at rest | 2.0.0 |
| Data Protection | DP-5 | Use customer-managed key option in data at rest encryption when required | SQL servers should use customer-managed keys to encrypt data at rest | 2.0.1 |
| Logging and Threat Detection | LT-1 | Enable threat detection capabilities | Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected Azure SQL servers | 2.0.1 |
| Logging and Threat Detection | LT-1 | Enable threat detection capabilities | Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected SQL Managed Instances | 1.0.2 |
| Logging and Threat Detection | LT-2 | Enable threat detection for identity and access management | Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected Azure SQL servers | 2.0.1 |
| Logging and Threat Detection | LT-2 | Enable threat detection for identity and access management | Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected SQL Managed Instances | 1.0.2 |
| Logging and Threat Detection | LT-3 | Enable logging for security investigation | Auditing on SQL server should be enabled | 2.0.0 |
| Logging and Threat Detection | LT-6 | Configure log storage retention | SQL servers with auditing to storage account destination should be configured with 90 days retention or higher | 3.0.0 |
| Incident Response | IR-3 | Detection and analysis - create incidents based on high-quality alerts | Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected Azure SQL servers | 2.0.1 |
| Incident Response | IR-3 | Detection and analysis - create incidents based on high-quality alerts | Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected SQL Managed Instances | 1.0.2 |
| Posture and Vulnerability Management | PV-5 | Perform vulnerability assessments | Vulnerability assessment should be enabled on SQL Managed Instance | 1.0.1 |
| Posture and Vulnerability Management | PV-5 | Perform vulnerability assessments | Vulnerability assessment should be enabled on your SQL servers | 3.0.0 |
| Posture and Vulnerability Management | PV-6 | Rapidly and automatically remediate vulnerabilities | SQL databases should have vulnerability findings resolved | 4.1.0 |
| Incident Response | AIR-5 | Detection and analysis - prioritize incidents | Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected Azure SQL servers | 2.0.1 |
| Incident Response | AIR-5 | Detection and analysis - prioritize incidents | Azure Defender for SQL should be enabled for unprotected SQL Managed Instances | 1.0.2 |
- See the built-ins on the Azure Policy GitHub repo.