Enforce GCP Compute Engine Instances Do Not Use Specific Machine Types

Enforcing GCP Compute Engine Instances to not use specific machine types is important to ensure compliance with organizational policies and cost management strategies. This control helps prevent the use of machine types that may be unsuitable for certain workloads, excessively costly, or lacking necessary security features, thereby optimizing resource utilization and maintaining a secure environment.

This policy pack can help you configure the following settings for Compute Engine instances:

Set unapproved list if instance sizes
Set unapproved list of instance family
Terminate instances that are not approved for use due to unapproved size or family

Review policy settings →

Getting Started

Requirements

Terraform
Guardrails mods:
- @turbot/gcp-computeengine

Credentials

To create a policy pack through Terraform:

Ensure you have Turbot/Admin permissions (or higher) in Guardrails
Create access keys in Guardrails

And then set your credentials:

export TURBOT_WORKSPACE=myworkspace.acme.com
export TURBOT_ACCESS_KEY=acce6ac5-access-key-here
export TURBOT_SECRET_KEY=a8af61ec-secret-key-here

Please see Turbot Guardrails Provider authentication for additional authentication methods.

Usage

Install Policy Pack

Note
By default, installed policy packs are not attached to any resources.

Policy packs must be attached to resources in order for their policy settings to take effect.

Clone:

git clone https://github.com/turbot/guardrails-samples.git
cd guardrails-samples/policy_packs/gcp/computeengine/enforce_instances_to_not_use_specific_machine_types

Run the Terraform to create the policy pack in your workspace:

terraform init
terraform plan

Then apply the changes:

terraform apply

Apply Policy Pack

Log into your Guardrails workspace and attach the policy pack to a resource.

If this policy pack is attached to a Guardrails folder, its policies will be applied to all accounts and resources in that folder. The policy pack can also be attached to multiple resources.

For more information, please see Policy Packs.

Enable Enforcement

Tip
You can also update the policy settings in this policy pack directly in the Guardrails console.

Please note your Terraform state file will then become out of sync and the policy settings should then only be managed in the console.

By default, the policies are set to Check in the pack's policy settings. To enable automated enforcements, you can switch these policies settings by adding a comment to the Check setting and removing the comment from one of the listed enforcement options:

resource "turbot_policy_setting" "gcp_computeengine_instance_approved" {
  resource = turbot_policy_pack.main.id
  type     = "tmod:@turbot/gcp-computeengine#/policy/types/instanceApproved"
  # value    = "Check: Approved"
  value    = "Enforce: Delete unapproved if new"
}

Then re-apply the changes:

terraform plan
terraform apply