Azure VM Missing Deletion Protection
The VM can be deleted in a single step, with no lock making that a deliberate act.
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Azure
Found, explained, handed over.
Where the estate departs from your policies, frameworks and tagging rules.
Detect
ZopNight checks this automatically across Azure, with read-only access to the account.
Explain
Every finding says exactly what to change: Add deletion protection to the VM.
Fix
The finding opens with the fix already written out, step by step, so it is one ticket, not an investigation.
- Applies to
- Virtual Machines on Azure
- The fix, by hand
- VM → Settings → Locks.
- Add → Lock type = Delete (CanNotDelete), name it descriptively (e.g.
prod-no-delete). - For especially critical production VMs, add a second ReadOnly lock. Note ReadOnly blocks routine ops including stop/start, so use selectively.
- Verify via CLI:
az lock list --resource-group ‹rg› --resource-name ‹name› --resource-type Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines. - Document the lock in your runbook so operators know how to remove it when a legitimate delete is needed.
These are the steps the finding carries in the product.
- Category
- Compliance. Configuration drift from best practice: public access, missing MFA, unencrypted storage, deprecated runtimes.
- Where it appears
- The Compliance tab of Recommendations, with every affected resource listed.
- Rule ID
RC-266- Full reference
Related checks
See the compliance findings in your account.
Connect a read-only role and the first pass runs on your own estate. This check, and the rest of the catalogue, with it.
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- $30M+annualised cloud spend under management
- 550K+resources tracked since launch
- 20-60%off the bill in the first month
- SOC 2Type II report, plus ISO 27001
Figures published on zop.dev.