IAM policy statement syntax and examples

  • Reference
  • 6-min read

This page describes the structure and syntax of the IAM policy statement and provides examples of how to work with IAM policy statements.

  • For a list of all supported values for each IAM service, permission, and condition, see IAM policy reference.

ALLOW statement

A policy statement typically starts with the ALLOW keyword, which is followed by permissions and then conditions.

ALLOW `<permissions>` WHERE `<conditions>`;
  • ALLOW: To enable permission.
  • permissions : A specific action a user or a group is allowed to perform on a resource within a Dynatrace service (For example, settings:objects:read).
Statement details

A single statement can contain multiple permission and condition clauses. It may also include an optional condition. A policy may include a maximum of 100 statements.

You can further break it down as:

ALLOW <service:resource:action> WHERE <service:attribute> = 'value' AND <service:attribute> = "value";
  • service: Dynatrace service name (for example, settings, storage, or metrics).
  • resource: Type of object or capability within the service (for example, objects, logs, or apps).
  • action: Specific operation the user is allowed to perform on that resource (for example, read, write, or create).
Resource actions

Each resource offers a specific set of actions, and not all actions are available on all resources.

  • condition: Allows you to restrict access on resource or record level. This is optional in a statement (for example, storage:table-name = "application.snapshots"). condition consists of three parts:
    • service: Dynatrace service that provides the attribute used in the condition (for example, storage, settings, or metrics).
    • attribute: Specific property of that service checked in the condition (for example, table-name, dt.security_context, or builtin:container.monitoring-rule).
    • value: Literal (or parameter) to compare with the attribute (for example, application.snapshots, default_security_events, or builtin:container.monitoring-rule).

DENY statement

A DENY statement always overrules an ALLOW statement.

Example:

DENY storage:logs:read;

If there is any DENY statement assigned and it matches a given request, all subsequent ALLOW statements are ignored.

Instead of using DENY, you can grant users only the access they need via dedicated ALLOW statements with conditions or by leveraging policy boundaries.

It is recommended to avoid using DENY statements without a condition, as they would block the whole API for the users. It can create complex policy situations that are hard to resolve.

Dynatrace evaluates the order for DENY as follows:

  1. Check for an unconditional DENY on a service request and reject if it matches.
  2. Check for a conditional DENY on a service request that matches the request, and reject if it matches.
  3. Check for an unconditional ALLOW on a service request, and grant access if it matches.
  4. Check for a conditional ALLOW on a service request that matches the request, and grant access if it matches.
  5. If nothing matches, reject access.

Policy statement syntax

The table below provides descriptions and examples for each policy syntax component.

Example:

ALLOW settings:objects:read, settings:schemas:read WHERE settings:schemaId = "123" AND storage:table-name = "events";

Component

Description

Examples

<permission>

A specific action a user or group is allowed to perform on a resource within a Dynatrace service.

  • storage:logs:read
  • storage:buckets:write
  • environment:roles:viewer
  • openpipeline:configurations:write
  • storage:system:read (used with condition like storage:table-name = "dt.system.events")

For more permissions, see IAM policy reference.

<service>

Dynatrace service name.

  • settings
  • cloudautomation
  • environment
  • automation
  • openpipeline
  • business-analytics

For more services, see IAM policy reference.

<resource>

A specific type of object or capability within the service.

  • logs
  • bucket-definitions
  • configurations
  • apps

For more resources, see IAM policy reference.

<action>

A specific operation the user is allowed to perform on that resource.

  • read
  • run
  • set
  • manage
  • execute

For more actions, see IAM policy reference.

<condition>

Add a restriction to the permission based on a particular attribute or context.

  • WHERE <condition name> <condition operator> = "<condition value>".
    • Example: WHERE settings:schemaId = "builtin:container.monitoring-rule" AND storage:table-name = "events"
  • To add multiple conditions to a statement, use AND.
  • Conditions are optional. You can use the null value to indicate no condition.
    • Example: ALLOW settings:schemas:read WHERE null;

<condition name>

The specific property of a service to check in the condition.

  • table-name
  • dt.security_context
  • schemaId

Every permission in an IAM policy contains conditions.

  • Some conditions are permission-specific and apply only to a defined set of permissions within a service, while global conditions apply across all permissions.

For conditions supported by permissions, see IAM policy reference.

<condition operator>

The operator used to check the condition.

  • =
  • !=
  • <
  • >
  • IN (applies only to lists)
  • startsWith
  • NOT IN
  • NOT startsWith

Not every operator applies to every service attribute. For a list of supported options, see IAM policy reference.

<condition value>

The literal (or parameter) to compare with the attribute.

Examples for each operators:

  • = or != : WHERE settings:schemaId = "builtin:container.monitoring-rule"
  • IN : WHERE settings:schemaId IN ("builtin:container.monitoring-rule", "builtin:container.built-in-monitoring-rule")
  • NOT IN : WHERE storage:table-name = "events" NOT IN ("default_security_events", "default_security_custom_events")
  • NOT startsWith : WHERE storage:table-name NOT startsWith "application."
  • > : WHERE global:date-time > "2022-05-03T05:00:00+01:00"
  • < : WHERE global:time-of-day < "17:00+01:00"
  • startsWith : WHERE settings:schemaId startsWith "app:"

<comment>

A comment explaining the policy. Everything between a double slash (//) and the end of the line is comment text.

  • Example: // Vulnerability service ALLOW vulnerability-service:vulnerabilities:read;

Example policy statements

These examples show common IAM policy patterns for granting, restricting, or conditioning access in different scenarios.

  • These examples use the Dynatrace Settings service (settings), which enables you to manage the following permissions:

    • schemas:read
    • objects:read
    • objects:write

    Settings service supports the settings:schemaId condition, which supports the following operators:

    • IN
    • =
    • !=
    • startsWith
    • NOT startsWith.

Example 1: simple ALLOW statement

In this example, a user that belongs to a group to which this policy is assigned has read access to all schemas in the Dynatrace settings service.

ALLOW settings:schemas:read;

Example 2: condition - single value

This example modifies example 1 by adding a condition to limit read access to just one specific schema in the Dynatrace settings service.

ALLOW settings:schemas:read WHERE settings:schemaId = "builtin:container.monitoring-rule";

The condition is added to this example statement by adding the WHERE keyword followed by the condition, which consists of three parts:

  • condition name (settings:schemaId)
  • condition operator (=)
  • condition value ("builtin:container.monitoring-rule")

So this statement says a user that belongs to a group to which this policy is assigned can read schemas in the settings service, but only if the schema is equal to builtin:container.monitoring-rule.

If you instead used the condition operator !=, it would mean that a user that belongs to a group to which this policy is assigned can read schemas in the settings service, but only if the schema is NOT equal to builtin:container.monitoring-rule.

Example 3: condition - list of values

This example modifies example 2 to show how to use the IN operator with a list of values.

ALLOW settings:schemas:read WHERE settings:schemaId IN ("builtin:container.monitoring-rule", "builtin:container.built-in-monitoring-rule");

The condition value in this case takes the form of a list of schema IDs enclosed with parentheses and delimited with commas.

So this statement says a user that belongs to a group to which this policy is assigned can read schemas in the settings service, but only if the schema ID is in this list, and then it defines a comma-separated list of two schema IDs: ("builtin:container.monitoring-rule", "builtin:container.built-in-monitoring-rule")

Example 4: statements on separate lines

Each policy can have multiple statements.

Example policy with two statements:

ALLOW settings:objects:read;


ALLOW settings:objects:write WHERE settings:schemaId = "builtin:container.monitoring-rule";

In this example, a user that belongs to a group to which this policy is assigned can:

  • read all objects in the settings service (there is no condition in the first statement)
  • write objects in the settings service only where settings:schemaId is equal to builtin:container.monitoring-rule

Example 5: statements combined

Instead of listing permission statements on separate lines, you can combine statements into one line:

ALLOW settings:objects:read, settings:objects:write WHERE settings:schemaId = "builtin:container.monitoring-rule";

A policy with this statement grants read and write access to builtin:container.monitoring-rule, with the WHERE condition applying to both.

Example 6: statement with comments

To explain a policy or statements in it, you can add one or more standalone comment lines:

// Read and Write access to monitoring-rule
ALLOW settings:objects:read, settings:objects:write WHERE settings:schemaId = "builtin:container.monitoring-rule";

You can also add a comment to a statement line:

ALLOW settings:objects:read;  // Allows the user to read all `objects` in the `settings` service
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