How to create an Azure key vault and vault access policy by using a Resource Manager template

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Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that provides a secure store for secrets like keys, passwords, and certificates. This article describes the process for deploying an Azure Resource Manager template (ARM template) to create a key vault.

An Azure Resource Manager template is a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file that defines the infrastructure and configuration for your project. The template uses declarative syntax. You describe your intended deployment without writing the sequence of programming commands to create the deployment.

Prerequisites

To complete the steps in this article:

Create a Key Vault Resource Manager template

The following template shows a basic way to create a key vault. Some values are specified in the template.

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "keyVaultName": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the name of the key vault."
      }
    },
    "skuName": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "Standard",
      "allowedValues": [
        "Standard",
        "Premium"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies whether the key vault is a standard vault or a premium vault."
      }
    }
   },
  "resources": [
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults",
      "apiVersion": "2019-09-01",
      "name": "[parameters('keyVaultName')]",
      "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
      "properties": {
        "enabledForDeployment": "false",
        "enabledForDiskEncryption": "false",
        "enabledForTemplateDeployment": "false",
        "tenantId": "[subscription().tenantId]",
        "accessPolicies": [],
        "sku": {
          "name": "[parameters('skuName')]",
          "family": "A"
        },
        "networkAcls": {
          "defaultAction": "Allow",
          "bypass": "AzureServices"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

For more about Key Vault template settings, see Key Vault ARM template reference.

Important

If a template is redeployed, any existing access policies in the key vault will be overridden. We recommend that you populate the accessPolicies property with existing access policies to avoid losing access to the key vault.

Add an access policy to a Key Vault Resource Manager template

You can deploy access policies to an existing key vault without redeploying the entire key vault template. The following template shows a basic way to create access policies:

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "keyVaultName": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the name of the key vault."
      }
    },
    "objectId": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the object ID of a user, service principal or security group in the Microsoft Entra ID tenant for the vault. The object ID must be unique for the list of access policies. Get it by using Get-AzADUser or Get-AzADServicePrincipal cmdlets."
      }
    },
    "keysPermissions": {
      "type": "array",
      "defaultValue": [
        "list"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the permissions to keys in the vault. Valid values are: all, encrypt, decrypt, wrapKey, unwrapKey, sign, verify, get, list, create, update, import, delete, backup, restore, recover, and purge."
      }
    },
    "secretsPermissions": {
      "type": "array",
      "defaultValue": [
        "list"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the permissions to secrets in the vault. Valid values are: all, get, list, set, delete, backup, restore, recover, and purge."
      }
    },
    "certificatePermissions": {
      "type": "array",
      "defaultValue": [
        "list"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Specifies the permissions to certificates in the vault. Valid values are: all,  create, delete, update, deleteissuers, get, getissuers, import, list, listissuers, managecontacts, manageissuers,  recover, backup, restore, setissuers, and purge."
      }
    }
  },
  "resources": [
     {
      "type": "Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/accessPolicies",
      "name": "[concat(parameters('keyVaultName'), '/add')]",
      "apiVersion": "2019-09-01",
      "properties": {
        "accessPolicies": [
          {
            "tenantId": "[subscription().tenantId]",
            "objectId": "[parameters('objectId')]",
            "permissions": {
              "keys": "[parameters('keysPermissions')]",
              "secrets": "[parameters('secretsPermissions')]",
              "certificates": "[parameters('certificatePermissions')]"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

For more information about Key Vault template settings, see Key Vault ARM template reference.

More Key Vault Resource Manager templates

There are other Resource Manager templates available for Key Vault objects:

Secrets Keys Certificates
N/A N/A

You can find more Key Vault templates here: Key Vault Resource Manager reference.

Deploy the templates

You can use the Azure portal to deploy the preceding templates by using the Build your own template in editor option as described here: Deploy resources from a custom template.

You can also save the preceding templates to files and use these commands: New-AzResourceGroupDeployment and az deployment group create:

New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -ResourceGroupName ExampleGroup -TemplateFile key-vault-template.json

az deployment group create --resource-group ExampleGroup --template-file key-vault-template.json

Clean up resources

If you plan to continue with subsequent quickstarts and tutorials, you can leave these resources in place. When you don't need the resources any longer, delete the resource group. If you delete the group, the key vault and related resources are also deleted. To delete the resource group by using the Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell, complete these steps:

echo "Enter the Resource Group name:" &&
read resourceGroupName &&
az group delete --name $resourceGroupName &&
echo "Press [ENTER] to continue ..."

Resources

Next steps