Azure Managed Identities provides Azure services with an automatically managed identity in Azure AD. This allows you to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD authentication without needing any credentials stored in your code.
Managed Identities is widely used in real world scenarios to enable the development of secure cloud applications by eliminating the need for developers to handle credentials.
Managed Identity Types
There are two types of managed identities:
- System Assigned Managed Identity: This is tied directly to the Azure service instance. When the resource is deleted, Azure automatically deletes the identity for you.
- User Assigned Managed Identity: This is managed separately from the Azure service instance. this identity can be shared across multiple instances.
How Managed Identity Works
When you enable managed identities for your Azure resources, Azure creates an identity for the instance in the Azure AD tenant that’s trusted by your subscription.
- Azure assigns a managed identity to the resource.
- This managed identity is granted the necessary role assignments and permissions to interact with other Azure resources.
- When your code needs to authenticate to a service that supports Azure AD authentication, it requests an access token from Azure AD for the service.
- Azure AD returns the access token to your code, which can use it to authenticate to the service.
Let’s consider a practical scenario of assigning a System Assigned Managed Identity to an Azure Function.
(Note: You don’t need to code this, as it’s done through the Azure portal.)
- In the Azure portal, navigate to your function app.
- Go to the “Platform Features” tab, and click “Identity” under “Networking”.
- In the System assigned tab, set Status to On.
- Click Save.
Now, your function app has a system assigned managed identity that allows it to interact with other Azure resources.
Advantages of Managed Identities
- Simplified Management: Managed Identities eliminate the need for developers having to manage credentials.
- Increased Security: Secrets don’t need to be stored in your code, greatly reducing the chances of them leaking.
- Automated Management: Azure takes care of the identity lifecycle, automatically creating and deleting identities as required.
In conclusion, Azure Managed Identities is an efficient and secure solution for managing identities for accessing Azure resources. It simplifies security management and allows developers to focus on developing their solutions rather than managing credentials. This feature is heavily tested and trusted by many enterprises thus making it a vital topic for the AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure exam. Ensure you understand all its facets and you’re one step closer to acing the exam!
Practice Test
True or False: Managed identities for Azure resources provide Azure services with an automatically managed identity in Azure Active Directory.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Managed Identities for Azure resources is a feature of Azure Active Directory. It provides Azure services with an automatically managed identity in Azure AD that you can use to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD authentication.
What type of managed identities are provided by Azure?
- A) System assigned
- B) User assigned
- C) Both A and B
- D) None of the above
Answer: C) Both A and B
Explanation: Azure provides two types of managed identities: System-assigned and User-assigned. System-assigned identities are tied to your service instance. User-assigned identities are standalone Azure resources that can be assigned to one or more instances of an Azure service.
True or False: Managed Identities can be used to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD Authentication.
- True
- False
Answer: True.
Explanation: Managed Identities for Azure resources provides Azure services with an automatically managed identity in Azure AD. You can use this identity to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD authentication.
True or False: Managed identities are deleted when the Azure resource is deleted.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: System-assigned managed identities are automatically cleaned up when the Azure resource is deleted, preventing any unused identities from existing.
Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using Managed Identities?
- A) Automates password management
- B) No need for developers to manage credentials
- C) Reduces security risks
- D) Increases costs
Answer: D) Increases costs
Explanation: Managed Identities help to reduce the need for developers to manage credentials and automate password management, which not only reduces security risk but can also save costs.
True or False: Once managed identities are assigned, they cannot be unassigned.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: User-assigned managed identities can be unassigned from a resource and reassigned to another, allowing for flexibility and control.
Which Azure service does NOT support managed identities?
- A) Azure Functions
- B) Azure Logic Apps
- C) Azure Kubernetes Service
- D) All the above services support managed identities
Answer: D) All the above services support managed identities
Explanation: All the listed Azure services – Azure Functions, Azure Logic Apps, and Azure Kubernetes Service – support managed identities.
True or False: Managed identities can be used to authenticate to Azure SQL Database
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Managed identities can be used to authenticate to Azure SQL Database. This eliminates the need for storing and maintaining connection strings.
Can a single user-assigned managed identity be associated with more than one Azure service instance?
- A) Yes
- B) No
Answer: A) Yes
Explanation: A single user-assigned managed identity can be associated with more than one Azure service instance. This allows for greater flexibility and reusability of identities.
True or False: Managed identities are automatically included in the Azure Role-Based Access Control.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Managed identities are automatically included in Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), helping to secure access to Azure resources.
Interview Questions
What is the use of Managed Identities in Azure?
Managed identities provide an Azure AD identity to Azure resources, allowing them to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD authentication without any credentials in code.
What are the two types of managed identities in Azure?
The two types are System-assigned managed identities and User-assigned managed identities.
What is a System-assigned managed identity?
A system-assigned managed identity is enabled directly on an Azure service instance. When the identity is enabled, Azure creates an identity for the instance in AzureAD and binds it to the service.
What is the difference between a System-Assigned Identity and a User-Assigned Identity?
A System-Assigned Identity is tied to the lifecycle of the service it’s enabled on. In contrast, a User-Assigned Identity is a standalone Azure resource that can be assigned to one or more services.
Can a single Azure resource have multiple user-assigned managed identities?
Yes, a single Azure resource can have multiple user-assigned managed identities.
How is the managed identity’s lifecycle controlled in System assigned managed identity?
The lifecycle of a system-assigned managed identity is automatically managed by Azure. It’s created when we enable managed identity on a resource and is deleted when the resource is deleted.
How can managed identities authenticate to services?
Managed identities authenticate to services that support Azure AD authentication, using OAuth 2.0 or OpenID Connect.
Which Azure services support managed identities?
Many Azure services, including Azure Functions, App Service, and Azure Kubernetes Service support managed identities.
Is it possible to use both, a system-assigned and user-assigned managed identity for a single instance?
Yes, a single instance can use both a system-assigned identity and user-assigned identities.
How can managed identities improve the security aspect of an application deployed in Azure?
Managed Identities eliminates the need for developers to manage credentials. Thus, they drastically reduce the risk of credentials being leaked.
Is there a cost associated with using Managed Identities in Azure?
No, Managed Identities are a free feature of Azure Active Directory.
Which protocol do Managed Identities use to obtain tokens?
Managed identities use the Azure Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) endpoint, which is a REST endpoint available at a well-known non-routable IP address (169.254.169.254), to get tokens.
What is the use of assigning roles to managed identities in Azure?
Roles are assigned to manage permissions. They determine what actions are permitted like read, write, and delete.
Does deleting a virtual machine delete its system-assigned managed identity?
Yes, deleting a virtual machine would also delete its system-assigned managed identity.
How to give a User-assigned managed identity access to a resource group?
To give a user-assigned managed identity access to a resource, we use Azure’s role-based access control (RBAC) by assigning the appropriate role to the managed identity on the target resource.
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