Alz Sync Troubleshoot

ALZ Sync Troubleshooting Skill

This skill reproduces the ALZ Library sync workflow with a minimal scratch Definitions folder. Use it to investigate issues in New-ALZPolicyDefaultStructure and Sync-ALZPolicyFromLibrary (see Docs/integrating-with-alz-library.md).

It is intended for the GitHub Copilot cloud agent. Do not commit the generated Definitions/, policyStructures/, or temp/ folders – they are scratch artefacts.

When to use

Trigger this skill when the user reports problems such as:

• New-ALZPolicyDefaultStructure failing or producing an empty / malformed default file
• Sync-ALZPolicyFromLibrary throwing errors, missing parameters, or generating unexpected assignments
• Issues specific to a -Tag, -LibraryPath, or a -Type (ALZ, AMBA, FSI, SLZ)
• Differences between two ALZ Library tags
• AMBA extended policies sync (-SyncAMBAExtendedPolicies)

Prerequisites

• PowerShell 7+
• git available on PATH (the scripts clone Azure/Azure-Landing-Zones-Library)
• Run from the repo root (enterprise-azure-policy-as-code). The scripts live in Scripts/CloudAdoptionFramework/.

Steps

1. Create a minimal scratch Definitions folder

Create ./Definitions/global-settings.jsonc with placeholder values – the sync commands only need a valid pacEnvironments entry whose pacSelector matches -PacEnvironmentSelector (default epac-dev).

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path ./Definitions | Out-Null

@'
{
    "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/enterprise-azure-policy-as-code/main/Schemas/global-settings-schema.json",
    "pacOwnerId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "pacEnvironments": [
        {
            "pacSelector": "epac-dev",
            "cloud": "AzureCloud",
            "tenantId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "deploymentRootScope": "/providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/epac-troubleshoot",
            "desiredState": {
                "strategy": "ownedOnly"
            },
            "globalNotScopes": [],
            "managedIdentityLocation": "eastus2"
        }
    ]
}
'@ | Set-Content -Path ./Definitions/global-settings.jsonc -Encoding utf8

2. Run New-ALZPolicyDefaultStructure

This must run at least once before sync. It generates the policy structure file under Definitions/policyStructures/.

./Scripts/CloudAdoptionFramework/New-ALZPolicyDefaultStructure.ps1 `
    -DefinitionsRootFolder ./Definitions `
    -Type ALZ `
    -PacEnvironmentSelector epac-dev

Useful variants when reproducing a bug report:

# Pin to a specific library tag
-Tag "platform/alz/2025.02.0"

# Reuse an already-cloned/modified library (skips git clone)
-LibraryPath ./temp

# Other library types
-Type AMBA   # or FSI / SLZ

3. Run Sync-ALZPolicyFromLibrary

./Scripts/CloudAdoptionFramework/Sync-ALZPolicyFromLibrary.ps1 `
    -DefinitionsRootFolder ./Definitions `
    -Type ALZ `
    -PacEnvironmentSelector epac-dev

Useful switches when reproducing reported issues:

| Switch | Purpose |

| --- | --- |

| -Tag <tag> | Pin to a specific library release (e.g. platform/alz/2025.02.0). |

| -LibraryPath <path> | Use a pre-cloned / modified library; skip clone. |

| -CreateGuardrailAssignments | Reproduce guardrail-assignment generation issues. |

| -EnableOverrides | Reproduce override-related issues. |

| -SyncAssignmentsOnly | Only refresh assignments. |

| -SyncAMBAExtendedPolicies | AMBA-only; also clones azure-monitor-baseline-alerts. |

4. Inspect output

After the commands succeed, the relevant generated artefacts are:

• Definitions/policyStructures/*.jsonc – defaults file produced in step 2
• Definitions/policyAssignments/<Type>/** – assignments produced in step 3
• Definitions/policyDefinitions/<Type>/, Definitions/policySetDefinitions/<Type>/ – synced definitions
• temp/ (and temp_amba_extended/ for AMBA extended) – cloned library; safe to delete

When troubleshooting, capture the full console output of both commands and any stack trace. Note the -Tag value printed in the header – sync errors are usually tied to a specific library release.

5. Cleanup

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force ./Definitions, ./temp, ./temp_amba_extended -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Notes

• Default tags live near the top of both scripts (Scripts/CloudAdoptionFramework/*.ps1) – check there if "latest" behaviour seems off.
• The scripts validate -Tag against https://api.github.com/repos/Azure/Azure-Landing-Zones-Library/git/refs/tags/; network egress to GitHub is required.
• Minimum EPAC module version supporting this flow is 10.9.0 (per Docs/integrating-with-alz-library.md).