Best Practices for Using Policy as Code in CI/CD Pipelines with Harness
Harness’s Policy as Code enables automated governance in CI/CD pipelines by enforcing security and compliance rules. Start with predefined policies, group them into Policy Sets for efficient management, and gradually introduce enforcement to minimize disruptions. Regularly review, update, and document policies to ensure ongoing effectiveness and smooth adoption across teams.
In today’s fast-paced software development environment, ensuring that your CI/CD pipelines remain secure, compliant, and governed is a top priority. Integrating governance through Policy as Code (PaC) enables you to define, automate, and enforce governance rules directly within your pipelines, ensuring your deployments adhere to organizational and regulatory standards.
Harness offers a robust framework for implementing Policy as Code, allowing organizations to embed policies that safeguard compliance and security, all while maintaining the speed and flexibility needed in modern development practices. Policy as Code is supported across multiple Harness modules, including Continuous Delivery (CD), Feature Flags (FF), and Security Testing Orchestration (STO). This blog will explore best practices for using Policy as Code within these modules, alongside detailed examples to help you get started.
Understanding the Harness Governance Framework
Harness’s governance framework provides a structured way to define, manage, and enforce policies across your CI/CD pipelines. At the core of this framework is the concept of Policy as Code, where policies are defined, versioned, and enforced directly in your pipeline configuration. Key elements of this framework include:
- Policy: A set of rules that govern pipeline behaviour. For instance, a policy can mandate that all deployment artifacts be signed or ensure that certain security tags are applied.
- Policy Set: A group of policies that can be applied to one or more pipelines, making it easier to manage governance at scale.
- Enforcement Level: Policies can be enforced at different levels—`WARN` or `ERROR`. This allows teams to gradually adopt policies by first warning about violations, then enforcing them by blocking the pipeline.
- Policy Engine: The core mechanism in Harness that evaluates and enforces policies within the pipeline based on the configurations provided.
Harness’s comprehensive governance documentation can be found here.
Start with Predefined Sample Policies
Harness offers a wide array of predefined sample policies for common use cases, such as enforcing encryption, requiring approvals for production deployments, or restricting certain deployment configurations. These samples allow you to quickly implement governance and customize the policies to your specific needs.
Example Scenario: Enforcing Template and Version Requirements for Production Deployment Approval
Let’s say you want to enforce that all production deployments require approval from a senior engineer. Here is a sample policy that checks whether a stage type has a template at all and second policy code checks whether stage uses a required template and version.
For more sample policies, check the Sample Policy Use Case documentation.
Group Related Policies Using Policy Sets
As your organization expands, the number of policies will also grow. Managing them efficiently is critical. Harness allows you to group related policies into Policy Sets, simplifying governance by applying these sets to specific stages of your pipeline. By grouping policies, you ensure consistency across environments, reduce the complexity of managing individual policies, and make updates or audits more streamlined. This approach not only centralizes governance but also enables you to enforce uniform rules across different parts of your pipeline more easily.
Advantages of Grouping Policy Sets
- Centralized Management: Instead of managing individual policies, Policy Sets allow you to organize related policies under a single set, making it easier to maintain and update.
- Consistency: Grouping policies into sets ensures uniform application of rules across multiple pipelines and environments.
- Scalability: As your organization grows, managing a large number of policies through sets allows you to scale your governance practices without additional overhead.
- Audit Efficiency: Grouped policies simplify auditing and reporting by offering a single point of review for multiple related rules.
Best Practice:
- Environment-Based Policy Sets: Create separate Policy Sets for development, staging, and production environments. Each environment can have tailored governance rules that ensure different levels of compliance.
- Compliance-Based Policy Sets: Group policies that focus on specific compliance or security requirements, such as encryption or approval processes.
For guidance on creating Policy Sets, refer to the Harness Policy As Code Quickstart.
Gradually Introduce Policies with Flexible Enforcement
Integrating new policies into CI/CD pipelines can be disruptive if enforced too strictly from the start. Harness provides flexibility by allowing you to begin policy enforcement at a WARN level before transitioning to a stricter ERROR level.
Best Practice:
- Initial Rollout with WARN Mode: When first introducing a new policy, set it to WARN. This will flag violations without blocking the pipeline, giving teams time to adjust their workflows.
- Transition to ERROR Mode: Once the team has adapted to the new policies, switch to ERROR mode. At this point, the pipeline will be blocked if the policy is violated, ensuring full compliance.
This phased approach reduces disruption and ensures smoother adoption of governance policies. Explore more about enforcement levels here.
Apply Policies to Critical Pipeline Elements
Policies should focus on the most crucial aspects of your pipeline, such as secrets, connectors, and key pipeline configurations.
Secrets Governance:
Ensure that secrets are encrypted and access-controlled. For example, you might enforce a policy that ensures all secrets follow a particular naming convention.
Sample Connector Policy Code:
This policy ensures that all secret names follow a consistent and secure naming convention.
Connector Governance:
Connectors link your pipelines with external systems, such as cloud providers or artifact repositories. Ensuring connectors are compliant with governance policies is essential.
Sample Connector Policy Code:
This ensures all connectors follow a structured naming convention for easier management and security compliance.
For a full guide on enforcing governance policies for secrets and connectors, refer to Harness’s documentation.
Continuously Monitor and Update Policies
Governance is an ongoing process. As your organization grows or the regulatory landscape evolves, your policies will need to be updated to remain effective. Harness provides robust monitoring and reporting tools that allow you to track policy compliance and take corrective actions.
Best Practice:
- Regular Policy Reviews: Conduct regular policy reviews to ensure they remain relevant and effective. Involve key stakeholders from security, development, and compliance teams.
- Automated Reporting: Use Harness’s evaluation API to automatically generate reports on policy compliance, including metrics like violation frequency and severity. This enables you to identify trends and adjust your policies accordingly.
For more on automated reporting and policy compliance tracking, see the Harness Policy Dashboard API.
Leverage Custom Policies for Unique Needs
Harness’s Policy Engine is flexible and customizable, allowing you to write custom policies tailored to your specific requirements. Whether it’s enforcing certain deployment configurations or controlling resource usage, you can write policies that address gaps in predefined rules.
Best Practice:
- Custom Policy Development: Identify areas where your organization has unique governance needs. Collaborate with your development and security teams to define and implement custom policies.
- Testing in Staging: Thoroughly test custom policies in a staging environment before rolling them out in production. This helps catch potential issues without disrupting live pipelines.
For a guide on creating and managing custom policies, refer to the Harness Policy Engine documentation.
Document and Communicate Policies Effectively
Governance requires clear communication and documentation to ensure that all team members understand and adhere to the policies in place. Keeping everyone informed is crucial for smooth enforcement.
Best Practice:
- Centralized Documentation: Maintain a central repository where all policies, their purpose, and enforcement levels are documented. This should be accessible to all teams working on CI/CD pipelines.
- Training Sessions: Regularly conduct training or workshops to educate your team on new policies, updates, and how to implement them in their workflows.
Conclusion
Harness’s Policy as Code framework is a powerful tool for enforcing governance, security, and compliance across your CI/CD pipelines. By starting with predefined policies, gradually introducing them, and continuously monitoring and updating your governance framework, you can ensure that your software delivery remains secure and compliant. Whether you’re using sample policies or writing custom ones, these best practices will help you streamline policy management while keeping pace with modern development processes.