Tutorial: Grant a user access to Azure resources using Azure PowerShell

Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) is the way that you manage access to Azure resources. In this tutorial, you grant a user access to view everything in a subscription and manage everything in a resource group using Azure PowerShell.

In this tutorial, you learn how to:

  • Grant access for a user at different scopes
  • List access
  • Remove access

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Note

We recommend that you use the Azure Az PowerShell module to interact with Azure. See Install Azure PowerShell to get started. To learn how to migrate to the Az PowerShell module, see Migrate Azure PowerShell from AzureRM to Az.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you will need:

Role assignments

In Azure RBAC, to grant access, you create a role assignment. A role assignment consists of three elements: security principal, role definition, and scope. Here are the two role assignments you will perform in this tutorial:

Security principal Role definition Scope
User
(RBAC Tutorial User)
Reader Subscription
User
(RBAC Tutorial User)
Contributor Resource group
(rbac-tutorial-resource-group)

Role assignments for a user

Create a user

To assign a role, you need a user, group, or service principal. If you don't already have a user, you can create one.

  1. In Azure Cloud Shell, create a password that complies with your password complexity requirements.

    $PasswordProfile = @{ Password = "<Password>" }
    
  2. Create a new user for your domain using the New-MgUser command.

    New-MgUser -DisplayName "RBAC Tutorial User" -PasswordProfile $PasswordProfile `
       -UserPrincipalName "rbacuser@example.com" -AccountEnabled:$true -MailNickName "rbacuser"
    
    DisplayName        Id                                   Mail UserPrincipalName
    -----------        --                                   ---- -----------------
    RBAC Tutorial User 11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111      rbacuser@example.com
    

Create a resource group

You use a resource group to show how to assign a role at a resource group scope.

  1. Get a list of region locations using the Get-AzLocation command.

    Get-AzLocation | select Location
    
  2. Select a location near you and assign it to a variable.

    $location = "westus"
    
  3. Create a new resource group using the New-AzResourceGroup command.

    New-AzResourceGroup -Name "rbac-tutorial-resource-group" -Location $location
    
    ResourceGroupName : rbac-tutorial-resource-group
    Location          : westus
    ProvisioningState : Succeeded
    Tags              :
    ResourceId        : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rbac-tutorial-resource-group
    

Grant access

To grant access for the user, you use the New-AzRoleAssignment command to assign a role. You must specify the security principal, role definition, and scope.

  1. Get the ID of your subscription using the Get-AzSubscription command.

    Get-AzSubscription
    
    Name     : Pay-As-You-Go
    Id       : 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    TenantId : 22222222-2222-2222-2222-222222222222
    State    : Enabled
    
  2. Save the subscription scope in a variable.

    $subScope = "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
    
  3. Assign the Reader role to the user at the subscription scope.

    New-AzRoleAssignment -SignInName rbacuser@example.com `
      -RoleDefinitionName "Reader" `
      -Scope $subScope
    
    RoleAssignmentId   : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/44444444-4444-4444-4444-444444444444
    Scope              : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    DisplayName        : RBAC Tutorial User
    SignInName         : rbacuser@example.com
    RoleDefinitionName : Reader
    RoleDefinitionId   : acdd72a7-3385-48ef-bd42-f606fba81ae7
    ObjectId           : 11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111
    ObjectType         : User
    CanDelegate        : False
    
  4. Assign the Contributor role to the user at the resource group scope.

    New-AzRoleAssignment -SignInName rbacuser@example.com `
      -RoleDefinitionName "Contributor" `
      -ResourceGroupName "rbac-tutorial-resource-group"
    
    RoleAssignmentId   : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rbac-tutorial-resource-group/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/33333333-3333-3333-3333-333333333333
    Scope              : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rbac-tutorial-resource-group
    DisplayName        : RBAC Tutorial User
    SignInName         : rbacuser@example.com
    RoleDefinitionName : Contributor
    RoleDefinitionId   : b24988ac-6180-42a0-ab88-20f7382dd24c
    ObjectId           : 11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111
    ObjectType         : User
    CanDelegate        : False
    

List access

  1. To verify the access for the subscription, use the Get-AzRoleAssignment command to list the role assignments.

    Get-AzRoleAssignment -SignInName rbacuser@example.com -Scope $subScope
    
    RoleAssignmentId   : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/22222222-2222-2222-2222-222222222222
    Scope              : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    DisplayName        : RBAC Tutorial User
    SignInName         : rbacuser@example.com
    RoleDefinitionName : Reader
    RoleDefinitionId   : acdd72a7-3385-48ef-bd42-f606fba81ae7
    ObjectId           : 11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111
    ObjectType         : User
    CanDelegate        : False
    

    In the output, you can see that the Reader role has been assigned to the RBAC Tutorial User at the subscription scope.

  2. To verify the access for the resource group, use the Get-AzRoleAssignment command to list the role assignments.

    Get-AzRoleAssignment -SignInName rbacuser@example.com -ResourceGroupName "rbac-tutorial-resource-group"
    
    RoleAssignmentId   : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rbac-tutorial-resource-group/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/33333333-3333-3333-3333-333333333333
    Scope              : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rbac-tutorial-resource-group
    DisplayName        : RBAC Tutorial User
    SignInName         : rbacuser@example.com
    RoleDefinitionName : Contributor
    RoleDefinitionId   : b24988ac-6180-42a0-ab88-20f7382dd24c
    ObjectId           : 11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111
    ObjectType         : User
    CanDelegate        : False
    
    RoleAssignmentId   : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/22222222-2222-2222-2222-222222222222
    Scope              : /subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    DisplayName        : RBAC Tutorial User
    SignInName         : rbacuser@example.com
    RoleDefinitionName : Reader
    RoleDefinitionId   : acdd72a7-3385-48ef-bd42-f606fba81ae7
    ObjectId           : 11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111
    ObjectType         : User
    CanDelegate        : False
    

    In the output, you can see that both the Contributor and Reader roles have been assigned to the RBAC Tutorial User. The Contributor role is at the rbac-tutorial-resource-group scope and the Reader role is inherited at the subscription scope.

(Optional) List access using the Azure Portal

  1. To see how the role assignments look in the Azure portal, view the Access control (IAM) blade for the subscription.

    Role assignments for a user at subscription scope

  2. View the Access control (IAM) blade for the resource group.

    Role assignments for a user at resource group scope

Remove access

To remove access for users, groups, and applications, use Remove-AzRoleAssignment to remove a role assignment.

  1. Use the following command to remove the Contributor role assignment for the user at the resource group scope.

    Remove-AzRoleAssignment -SignInName rbacuser@example.com `
      -RoleDefinitionName "Contributor" `
      -ResourceGroupName "rbac-tutorial-resource-group"
    
  2. Use the following command to remove the Reader role assignment for the user at the subscription scope.

    Remove-AzRoleAssignment -SignInName rbacuser@example.com `
      -RoleDefinitionName "Reader" `
      -Scope $subScope
    

Clean up resources

To clean up the resources created by this tutorial, delete the resource group and the user.

  1. Delete the resource group using the Remove-AzResourceGroup command.

    Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name "rbac-tutorial-resource-group"
    
    Confirm
    Are you sure you want to remove resource group 'rbac-tutorial-resource-group'
    [Y] Yes  [N] No  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"):
    
  2. When asked to confirm, type Y. It will take a few seconds to delete.

  3. Delete the user using the Remove-MgUser command.

    $User = Get-MgUser -Filter "DisplayName eq 'RBAC Tutorial User'"
    Remove-MgUser -UserId $User.Id
    

Next steps