Deploy Cerbos on Azure VMs
Run the Cerbos PDP on Azure Virtual Machines as a standalone binary or container alongside your application workloads.
Binary or container
Run Cerbos as a native binary managed by systemd or as a Docker container on your Azure VMs
VM Scale Sets
Scale Cerbos automatically with Azure VM Scale Sets, each instance runs independently
Managed identity
Use Azure managed identities to grant Cerbos access to policy sources stored in Azure services
What is Cerbos?
Cerbos is an open-source authorization layer that decouples access control from your application code. It runs as a stateless Policy Decision Point (PDP) that evaluates fine-grained policies at request time.
Authorization policies are written in human-readable YAML supporting RBAC, ABAC, and conditional rules. They can be updated, tested, and deployed independently of your application.
Deploying Cerbos via Azure Virtual Machine gives you a production-ready authorization service that scales horizontally and fits naturally into your existing infrastructure and observability stack.
How to deploy Cerbos on Azure VMs
- Create a Virtual Machine, Choose a VM size and configure network security groups to allow traffic on the Cerbos HTTP (3592) and gRPC (3593) ports.
- Install Cerbos, Download the static binary or run the official Docker container image on the VM.
- Configure policy loading, Point Cerbos at a local policy directory, Git repository, or Cerbos Hub for policy storage.
- Connect your application, Use a Cerbos SDK to send authorization checks from your services to the PDP.
FAQ
How do I deploy Cerbos on an Azure VM?
Download the Cerbos binary onto your VM and run it as a systemd service, or use Docker to run the official Cerbos container image. Configure your policy source and expose the gRPC and HTTP ports.
Does Cerbos require any external dependencies?
No. Cerbos is a single static binary with no external dependencies. It requires no database or message queue. Policies load from the filesystem, a Git repository, or Cerbos Hub.
How should I scale Cerbos on Azure VMs?
Run Cerbos on multiple VMs behind an Azure Load Balancer. Cerbos is stateless, so each instance operates independently with no coordination required. Use VM Scale Sets for automatic scaling.
Learn more about Cerbos
Related integrations
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Cerbos + Azure Virtual Machine
- Cerbos runs alongside your workloads in Azure Virtual Machine
- No external databases or message queues required
- Built-in metrics, distributed tracing, and structured logging
- Stateless PDP instances scale horizontally
Authorization for AI systems
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By business requirement
Useful links
What is Cerbos?
Cerbos is an end-to-end enterprise authorization software for Zero Trust environments and AI-powered systems. It enforces fine-grained, contextual, and continuous authorization across apps, APIs, AI agents, MCP servers, services, and workloads.
Cerbos consists of an open-source Policy Decision Point, Enforcement Point integrations, and a centrally managed Policy Administration Plane (Cerbos Hub) that coordinates unified policy-based authorization across your architecture. Enforce least privilege & maintain full visibility into access decisions with Cerbos authorization.