Quickstart: Create an Azure Firewall and a firewall policy - Terraform

Article
01/07/2025

In this quickstart, you use Terraform to create an Azure Firewall and a firewall policy. The firewall policy has an application rule that allows connections to www.microsoft.com and a rule that allows connections to Windows Update using the WindowsUpdate FQDN tag. A network rule allows UDP connections to a time server at 13.86.101.172.

Also, IP Groups are used in the rules to define the Source IP addresses.

Hashicorp Terraform is an open-source IaC (Infrastructure-as-Code) tool for provisioning and managing cloud infrastructure. It codifies infrastructure in configuration files that describe the desired state for your topology. Terraform enables the management of any infrastructure - such as public clouds, private clouds, and SaaS services - by using Terraform providers.

For information about Azure Firewall Manager, see What is Azure Firewall Manager?.

For information about Azure Firewall, see What is Azure Firewall?.

For information about IP Groups, see IP Groups in Azure Firewall.

Prerequisites

An Azure account with an active subscription. Create an account for free.

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

Install and configure Terraform

Review and Implement the Terraform code

Note

The sample code for this article is located in the Azure Terraform GitHub repo. You can view the log file containing the test results from current and previous versions of Terraform.

See more articles and sample code showing how to use Terraform to manage Azure resources

Multiple Azure resources are defined in the Terraform code. The following resources are defined in the main.tf file:

Create a directory in which to test the sample Terraform code and make it the current directory.

Create a file named provider.tf and insert the following code:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    azurerm = {
      source  = "hashicorp/azurerm"
      version = "~>3.0"
    }
    random = {
      source  = "hashicorp/random"
      version = "~>3.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
}

Create a file named main.tf and insert the following code:

resource "random_pet" "rg-name" {
  prefix = var.resource_group_name_prefix
}

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "rg" {
  name     = random_pet.rg-name.id
  location = var.resource_group_location
}

resource "azurerm_virtual_network" "azfw_vnet" {
  name                = "azfw-vnet"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  address_space       = ["10.10.0.0/24"]
}

resource "azurerm_ip_group" "workload_ip_group" {
  name                = "workload-ip-group"
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  cidrs               = ["10.20.0.0/24", "10.30.0.0/24"]
}
resource "azurerm_ip_group" "infra_ip_group" {
  name                = "infra-ip-group"
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  cidrs               = ["10.40.0.0/24", "10.50.0.0/24"]
}

resource "azurerm_subnet" "azfw_subnet" {
  name                 = "AzureFirewallSubnet"
  resource_group_name  = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  virtual_network_name = azurerm_virtual_network.azfw_vnet.name
  address_prefixes     = ["10.10.0.0/26"]
}

resource "azurerm_public_ip" "pip_azfw" {
  name                = "pip-azfw"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  allocation_method   = "Static"
  sku                 = "Standard"
}

resource "azurerm_firewall_policy" "azfw_policy" {
  name                     = "azfw-policy"
  resource_group_name      = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  location                 = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  sku                      = var.firewall_sku_tier
  threat_intelligence_mode = "Alert"
}

resource "azurerm_firewall_policy_rule_collection_group" "net_policy_rule_collection_group" {
  name               = "DefaultNetworkRuleCollectionGroup"
  firewall_policy_id = azurerm_firewall_policy.azfw_policy.id
  priority           = 200
  network_rule_collection {
    name     = "DefaultNetworkRuleCollection"
    action   = "Allow"
    priority = 200
    rule {
      name                  = "time-windows"
      protocols             = ["UDP"]
      source_ip_groups      = [azurerm_ip_group.workload_ip_group.id, azurerm_ip_group.infra_ip_group.id]
      destination_ports     = ["123"]
      destination_addresses = ["132.86.101.172"]
    }
  }
}

resource "azurerm_firewall_policy_rule_collection_group" "app_policy_rule_collection_group" {
  name               = "DefaulApplicationtRuleCollectionGroup"
  firewall_policy_id = azurerm_firewall_policy.azfw_policy.id
  priority           = 300
  application_rule_collection {
    name     = "DefaultApplicationRuleCollection"
    action   = "Allow"
    priority = 500
    rule {
      name = "AllowWindowsUpdate"

      description = "Allow Windows Update"
      protocols {
        type = "Http"
        port = 80
      }
      protocols {
        type = "Https"
        port = 443
      }
      source_ip_groups      = [azurerm_ip_group.workload_ip_group.id, azurerm_ip_group.infra_ip_group.id]
      destination_fqdn_tags = ["WindowsUpdate"]
    }
    rule {
      name        = "Global Rule"
      description = "Allow access to Microsoft.com"
      protocols {
        type = "Https"
        port = 443
      }
      destination_fqdns = ["*.microsoft.com"]
      terminate_tls     = false
      source_ip_groups  = [azurerm_ip_group.workload_ip_group.id, azurerm_ip_group.infra_ip_group.id]
    }
  }
}

resource "azurerm_firewall" "fw" {
  name                = "azfw"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  sku_name            = "AZFW_VNet"
  sku_tier            = var.firewall_sku_tier
  ip_configuration {
    name                 = "azfw-ipconfig"
    subnet_id            = azurerm_subnet.azfw_subnet.id
    public_ip_address_id = azurerm_public_ip.pip_azfw.id
  }
  firewall_policy_id = azurerm_firewall_policy.azfw_policy.id
}

Create a file named variables.tf and insert the following code:

variable "resource_group_location" {
  type        = string
  description = "Location for all resources."
  default     = "eastus"
}

variable "resource_group_name_prefix" {
  type = string
  description = "Prefix for the Resource Group Name that's combined with a random id so name is unique in your Azure subcription."  
  default = "rg"
}

variable "firewall_sku_tier" {
  type        = string
  description = "Firewall SKU."
  default     = "Premium" # Valid values are Standard and Premium
  validation {
    condition = contains(["Standard", "Premium"], var.firewall_sku_tier)
    error_message = "The sku must be one of the following: Standard, Premium"
  }
}

Create a file named outputs.tf and insert the following code, being sure to update the value to your own backend hostname:

output "resource_group_name" {
  value = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
}

output "firewall_name" {
  value = azurerm_firewall.fw.name
}

Initialize Terraform

Run terraform init to initialize the Terraform deployment. This command downloads the Azure provider required to manage your Azure resources.

terraform init -upgrade

Key points:

The -upgrade parameter upgrades the necessary provider plugins to the newest version that complies with the configuration's version constraints.

Create a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform plan to create an execution plan.

terraform plan -out main.tfplan

Key points:

The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

Apply a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan to your cloud infrastructure.

terraform apply main.tfplan

Key points:

The example terraform apply command assumes you previously ran terraform plan -out main.tfplan.
If you specified a different filename for the -out parameter, use that same filename in the call to terraform apply.
If you didn't use the -out parameter, call terraform apply without any parameters.

Clean up resources

When you no longer need the resources created via Terraform, do the following steps:

Run terraform plan and specify the destroy flag.
```
terraform plan -destroy -out main.destroy.tfplan
```
Key points:
- The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
- The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.
Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan.
```
terraform apply main.destroy.tfplan
```

Troubleshoot Terraform on Azure

Troubleshoot common problems when using Terraform on Azure

Next steps

Azure Firewall Manager policy overview

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Quickstart: Create an Azure Firewall and a firewall policy - Terraform

Prerequisites

Review and Implement the Terraform code

Initialize Terraform

Create a Terraform execution plan

Apply a Terraform execution plan

Clean up resources

Troubleshoot Terraform on Azure

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources