Policy Violation Issue

Hello Clifton Vaz

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Azure for Students subscriptions have region‑based deployment restrictions. Each subscription is typically limited to a small, predefined set of Azure regions (usually up to five), and the allowed regions can vary from one student account to another.

To view the specific regions permitted for your subscription, you can check the Azure Policy assignment that enforces this restriction:

1. Go to Azure Portal → Azure Policy → Authoring → Assignments
2. Open the policy assignment named “Allowed resource deployment regions”
3. Review the list of regions defined in that assignment

These policy settings determine where resources can be deployed and will block deployments to any region not explicitly listed.

Click on assignment named Allowed resource deployment regions

Examine Allowed locations Parameter value for list of regions, similar to below (regions in screenshot are different than yours):

The regions shown in your Parameter value are the ones you are allowed to deploy resources to. Please try to create resources in one of these regions and let me know the results.

Hello Clifton – it sounds like your student subscription has an Azure Policy in place that’s blocking your VNet deployment even though you’ve already verified the allowed locations. Here are some things to check and next steps you can take:

1. Discover the exact policy that’s firing
   • Go to the Azure portal’s Activity Log and filter on “Policy” – the failure entry will include the policy assignment and definition IDs.
   • Or, in Cloud Shell run: az policy state trigger-scan --subscription <your-sub-id> az policy state list --filter "isNonCompliant eq true" --subscription <your-sub-id>
2. Inspect your policy assignments at every scope
   • In the Azure portal, open the Policy blade > Assignments > select your Subscription or Management Group.
   • Look for built-in “Deny” assignments like “Allowed Resource Types,” “Allowed Locations,” or any “Dev/Test” assignment that might apply to student subscriptions.
   • If nothing’s at the subscription level, check at the root management group.
3. Drill into the policy definition
   • Once you have the policy definition ID, go to Policy > Definitions and search by that ID.
   • Review the “if” block in the JSON to see exactly what properties or resource types it’s evaluating.
   • Adjust your ARM template or Bicep file to comply (for example, pick an allowed SKU, resource type or add required tags).
4. On-demand compliance scan
   • After you make changes, you can trigger a compliance re-evaluation by running: az policy state trigger-scan --subscription <your-sub-id>
5. If you still can’t find the policy
   • Use PowerShell: Get-AzPolicyAssignment ‑Scope /subscriptions/<your-sub-id> Get-AzPolicyAssignment ‑Scope /providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/<your-mg>
   • Or CLI: az policy assignment list --scope /subscriptions/<your-sub-id>

Reference links:

1. Troubleshoot policy enforcement: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/governance/policy/troubleshoot/general#scenario-evaluation-not-as-expected
2. On-demand policy evaluation scan: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/governance/policy/how-to/get-compliance-data#on-demand-evaluation-scan
3. Azure Policy CLI reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/cli/azure/policy?view=azure-cli-latest
4. Azure Policy PowerShell commands: https://docs.microsoft.com/powershell/module/az.resources/?view=azps-3.6.1#policies

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Thanks

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A

Hello Clifton Vaz,

Even if you are in the right location, your deployment might be breaking a rule you don't see. For example:

• You might be trying to add an extra feature to your Virtual Network (like a VPN Gateway or a specific type of Firewall) that the Student plan doesn't allow.
• Your school might have a rule that every resource must have a "Tag" (like a label saying "Class: CS101") or it won't let you build it.

Don't just look at the general "InvalidTemplate" message.

Go to the Deployments tab in your Resource Group.

Open the failed attempt and click Error Details.

Look for a long link or ID that starts with /providers/Microsoft.Authorization/policyDefinitions/.

If you paste that ID into the search bar at the top of Azure, it will take you to the exact page explaining the rule you broke.

😊 If my answer helped you resolve your issue, please consider marking it as the correct answer. This helps others in the community find solutions more easily. Thanks!

In a student subscription, InvalidTemplateDeployment with a policy-related message usually means Azure Policy is blocking one or more resources in the template, even if the specific policy isn’t obvious in the portal.

Key points and where to look:

1. Understand the error chain
   • InvalidTemplateDeployment is often a wrapper error. The real cause is in the inner error code, for example RequestDisallowedByPolicy.
   • Check the Activity log for the failed deployment and expand the error details. Look for:
     • error.code such as RequestDisallowedByPolicy
     • policyAssignmentId and policyDefinitionId in the details
2. Typical policy-based blockers in constrained subscriptions In student or constrained offers, common enforced policies include:
   • Restricting resource types (for example, certain SKUs or services not allowed)
   • Restricting network configurations (for example, public IPs, certain NSG rules, or specific address ranges)
   • Restricting locations/regions (even if the portal’s “allowed locations” blade doesn’t show the exact policy assignment)
   The generic guidance for RequestDisallowedByPolicy is:
   • A policy is assigned that enforces standards; if the template violates it, deployment is blocked.
   • The mitigation is to find the blocking policy and adjust the deployment to comply.
3. How to dig further
   1. Go to Resource group → Deployments → failed deployment → Error details and look for:
      • RequestDisallowedByPolicy in the inner error
      • The policyAssignment and policyDefinition names (last segment of the IDs)
   2. Go to Azure Policy in the portal:
      • Check Assignments at:
        • Subscription scope (your student subscription)
        • Resource group scope
      • Look for policies related to:
        • Network (public IPs, VNet rules, IP ranges)
        • Security baselines
        • Student/education offer restrictions
   3. Compare your VNet template with the policy:
      • If the policy disallows public IPs or specific address ranges, change the VNet/subnet configuration to comply.
4. Adjusting the deployment
   • Once the blocking policy is identified, update the ARM/Bicep template to:
     • Use allowed regions, SKUs, or IP ranges.
     • Avoid disallowed resource types (for example, public IPs on NICs if a policy forbids them).
   • Redeploy after changes.

If the policy is enforced at subscription level and cannot be changed (common in student offers), the only option is to redesign the deployment to fit within the allowed configuration.

References:

• Troubleshoot common Azure deployment errors
• Resolve errors for request disallowed by policy