> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.snyk.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.snyk.io/scan-fix-and-prevent/scan-with-snyk/snyk-iac/detect-manually-created-resources/configure-cloud-providers/configure-azure-provider.md).
# Configure Azure provider
How to configure the Azure provider for Snyk IaC drift detection
## Authentication of Azure provider
To use `iac describe`, set up credentials to make authenticated requests to your Azure account. Snyk retrieves configuration information from [environment variables](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/go/azure-sdk-authorization#use-environment-based-authentication).
For a guide to configuring Azure authentication, see the [Terraform documentation](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/azurerm/latest/docs#authenticating-to-azure).
```
# Here we use a service principal account with a client secret
$ AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000\
AZURE_TENANT_ID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000\
AZURE_CLIENT_ID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000\
AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET=password\
snyk iac describe --to="azure+tf"
```
You can also authenticate using the **az** CLI. Then you must specify only the `AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID`:
```
$ AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000\
snyk iac describe --to=azure+tf
```
## Least privilege policy​
The `iac describe` command needs read-only access to your account. If you want to scan your whole Azure account, set up the **Reader** role on your subscription, as shown in the following screenshot.
Set up Reader role for the Azure provider
You may want to scan only a resource group; you can assign the **Reader** role only on some restricted resource groups.
---
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