Required Permissions and Custom Roles For Azure Chaos Faults

Last updated on Mar 25, 2026

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A reference guide for the minimum Azure role permissions required by each chaos faults and a superset role covering all.

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Superset Role for All Azure Faults

Required Azure RBAC Permissions

This superset combines all permissions required for Disk Loss, Instance Stop, Web App operations, and Azure Stress faults.

{
  "Name": "Harness Chaos Engineering - Azure Superset Role",
  "IsCustom": true,
  "Description": "Superset role combining all Azure permissions required for supported chaos faults.",
  "Actions": [
    "Microsoft.Compute/disks/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/write",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/write",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/powerOff/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/start/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/instanceView/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/powerOff/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/start/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/instanceView/read",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/read",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/config/list/action",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/config/write",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/state/action",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/stop/action",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/start/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/runCommand/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/runCommand/action",
    "Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups/read"
  ],
  "NotActions": [],
  "DataActions": [],
  "NotDataActions": [],
  "AssignableScopes": [
    "/subscriptions/<your-subscription-id>"
  ]
}

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Disk Loss

Required Azure RBAC Permissions

Azure RBAC Permission	Action Description
Microsoft.Compute/disks/read	Read managed disk metadata Get disk attachment status
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/read	Read VM/VMSS instance properties
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/read	Read VM/VMSS instance properties
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/write	Modify VM data disk attachments
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/write	Modify VMSS VM data disk attachments

Sample Custom Role

{
  "Name": "Harness Chaos Engineering - Azure Disk Loss",
  "IsCustom": true,
  "Description": "Allows detaching and reattaching managed disks to VM/VMSS instances.",
  "Actions": [
    "Microsoft.Compute/disks/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/write",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/write"
  ],
  "NotActions": [],
  "DataActions": [],
  "NotDataActions": [],
  "AssignableScopes": [
    "/subscriptions/<your-subscription-id>"
  ]
}

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Instance Stop

Required Azure RBAC Permissions

Azure RBAC Permission	Action Description
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/read	Read VM metadata
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/powerOff/action	Power off standalone VM
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/start/action	Start standalone VM
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/instanceView/read	Get instance status
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/read	Read VMSS instance metadata
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/powerOff/action	Power off VMSS instance
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/start/action	Start VMSS instance
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/instanceView/read	Get VMSS instance status

Sample Custom Role

{
  "Name": "Harness Chaos Engineering - Azure Instance Stop",
  "IsCustom": true,
  "Description": "Allows stopping and starting VMs and scale set VMs.",
  "Actions": [
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/powerOff/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/start/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/instanceView/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/powerOff/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/start/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualmachines/instanceView/read"
  ],
  "NotActions": [],
  "DataActions": [],
  "NotDataActions": [],
  "AssignableScopes": [
    "/subscriptions/<your-subscription-id>"
  ]
}

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Web App Access Restriction

Required Azure RBAC Permissions

Azure RBAC Permission	Action Description
Microsoft.Web/sites/read	List all Web Apps
Microsoft.Web/sites/config/list/action	Get Web App Config
Microsoft.Web/sites/config/write	Update Web App Config
Microsoft.Web/sites/state/action	Get Web App Status

Sample Custom Role

{
  "Name": "Harness Chaos Engineering - Web App Access Restriction",
  "IsCustom": true,
  "Description": "Allows reading and modifying Web App access restriction rules.",
  "Actions": [
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/read",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/config/list/action",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/config/write",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/state/action"
  ],
  "NotActions": [],
  "DataActions": [],
  "NotDataActions": [],
  "AssignableScopes": [
    "/subscriptions/<your-subscription-id>"
  ]
}

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Web App Stop

Required Azure RBAC Permissions

Azure RBAC Permission	Action Description
Microsoft.Web/sites/read	Read app metadata
Microsoft.Web/sites/stop/action	Stop the app
Microsoft.Web/sites/start/action	Start the app
Microsoft.Web/sites/state/action	Get app state

Sample Custom Role

{
  "Name": "Harness Chaos Engineering - Web App Stop",
  "IsCustom": true,
  "Description": "Allows stopping and starting Azure Web Apps.",
  "Actions": [
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/read",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/stop/action",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/start/action",
    "Microsoft.Web/sites/state/action"
  ],
  "NotActions": [],
  "DataActions": [],
  "NotDataActions": [],
  "AssignableScopes": [
    "/subscriptions/<your-subscription-id>"
  ]
}

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Azure Stress (CPU & Memory)

Required Azure RBAC Permissions

Azure RBAC Permission	Action Description
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/runCommand/action	Execute scripts on VMs using Run Command
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/read	Read VM instance details
Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/instanceView/read	Read the status of VMSS instances
Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups/read	Read resource group metadata

Sample Custom Role

{
  "Name": "Harness Chaos Engineering - Azure Stress",
  "IsCustom": true,
  "Description": "Minimal custom role for executing stress chaos fault on Azure VMs and VMSS",
  "Actions": [
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/runCommand/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/powerOff/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/start/action",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/instanceView/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/instanceView/read",
    "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/virtualMachines/runCommand/action",
    "Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups/read"
  ],
  "NotActions": [],
  "AssignableScopes": [
    "/subscriptions/<your-subscription-id>"
  ]
}

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Note: Replace <your-subscription-id> with your actual Azure subscription ID.