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title: Phase 3: Policy Rollout Strategy description: >- Policy rollout strategy for runtime enforcement. Audit-first approach, violation monitoring, phased enforcement, and metrics tracking for safe Kyverno deployment. tags: - rollout - audit - deployment - monitoring - kyverno

Phase 3: Policy Rollout Strategy

Deploy policies safely with audit-first approach.

Audit Before Enforce

Always deploy policies in Audit mode first. Monitor violations for 1 week. Fix violations. Then switch to Enforce mode.

Rollout Phases

Week 1: Audit Mode

spec:
  validationFailureAction: Audit  # Log violations, don't block

Monitor violations:

kubectl get policyreport -A
kubectl describe policyreport -n production

Week 2: Fix Violations

Address all policy violations identified in Week 1:

# Example: Add resource limits to all deployments
kubectl set resources deployment nginx -n production \
  --limits=cpu=200m,memory=512Mi \
  --requests=cpu=100m,memory=256Mi

Week 3: Enforce Mode

spec:
  validationFailureAction: Enforce  # Block non-compliant resources

Verify enforcement:

# Attempt to deploy non-compliant pod (should be blocked)
kubectl apply -f non-compliant-pod.yaml

Week 4: Monitor and Tune

Track policy effectiveness:

# Check policy reports
kubectl get clusterpolicyreport -o wide

# Export metrics for dashboard
kubectl get policyreport -A -o json | \
  jq '[.items[] | {namespace: .metadata.namespace, pass: .summary.pass, fail: .summary.fail}]'

Metrics to Track

Policy Enforcement:

  • Number of pods blocked by resource limit policy
  • Number of pods blocked by image source policy
  • Number of pods blocked by security context policy
  • Policy violation rate by namespace

Compliance Posture:

  • Percentage of pods with resource limits
  • Percentage of images from approved registries
  • Percentage of pods with secure security context
  • Policy Reporter pass/fail ratio

Target Metrics

  • Resource limits: 100% of pods
  • Approved registries: 100% of images
  • Secure context: 100% of pods
  • Policy violation rate: < 1% after enforcement

Audit mode deployed. Violations fixed. Enforce mode enabled. Metrics tracked. Rollout complete.

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