Create a compliance policy in Microsoft Intune
Device compliance policies are a key feature when using Intune to protect your organization's resources. In Intune, you can create rules and settings that devices must meet to be considered compliant, such as a minimum OS version. If the device isn't compliant, you can then block access to data and resources using Conditional Access.
You can also take actions for noncompliance, such as sending a notification email to the user. For an overview of what compliance policies do, and how they're used, see get started with device compliance.
This article:
- Lists the prerequisites and steps to create a compliancy policy.
- Shows you how to assign the policy to your user and device groups.
- Describes other features, including scope tags to "filter" your policies, and steps you can take on devices that aren't compliant.
- Lists the check-in refresh cycle times when devices receive policy updates.
Before you begin
To use device compliance policies, be sure you:
Use the following subscriptions:
- Intune
- If you use Conditional Access, then you need Microsoft Entra ID P1 or P2 edition. Microsoft Entra pricing lists what you get with the different editions. Intune compliance doesn't require Microsoft Entra ID.
Use a supported platform:
- Android device administrator
- Android AOSP
- Android Enterprise
- iOS
- Linux - Ubuntu Desktop, version 20.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS
- macOS
- Windows 10/11
Important
Microsoft Intune is ending support for Android device administrator management on devices with access to Google Mobile Services (GMS) on December 31, 2024. After that date, device enrollment, technical support, bug fixes, and security fixes will be unavailable. If you currently use device administrator management, we recommend switching to another Android management option in Intune before support ends. For more information, see Ending support for Android device administrator on GMS devices.
Enroll devices in Intune (required to see the compliance status)
Enroll devices to one user, or enroll without a primary user. Single devices can't be enrolled to multiple users.
In addition to compliance settings that are built in to Intune, the following platforms support adding custom compliance settings to compliance policies:
- Ubuntu Desktop, version 20.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS
- Windows 10/11
Before you can add custom settings, you must prepare a custom JSON file that defines the settings you want to base your custom compliance on, and a script that runs on devices to detect the settings defined in the JSON.
For more information about using custom compliance settings, including supported platforms, prerequisites, and how to configure the Custom Compliance category while creating a policy, see Use custom compliance settings.
Create the policy
Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.
Go to Devices.
Under Manage devices, select Compliance. Then choose Create policy.
Select a Platform for this policy from the following options:
- Android device administrator
- Android (AOSP)
- Android Enterprise
- iOS/iPadOS
- Linux - (Ubuntu Desktop, version 20.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS, RedHat Enterprise Linux 8, or RedHat Enterprise Linux 9)
- macOS
- Windows 10 and later
- Windows 8.1 and later
For Android Enterprise, you also select a Profile type. Your options:
- Fully managed, dedicated, and corporate-owned work profile
- Personally-owned work profile
Then select Create to open the configuration page.
On the Basics tab, enter a Name that helps you identify this policy later. For example, a good policy name is Mark iOS/iPadOS jailbroken devices as not compliant.
Optionally, enter a Description for the policy.
On the Compliance settings tab, expand the available categories, and configure settings for your policy. The following articles describe the available compliance settings for each platform:
Optionally, you can add custom settings for supported platforms.
Tip
This is an optional step that’s supported for the following platforms:
- Linux - Ubuntu Desktop, version 20.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS
- Windows 10 and later
Before you can add custom settings to a policy, you must have uploaded a detection script to Intune, and have ready a JSON file that defines the settings you want to use for compliance. See Custom compliance settings.
On the Compliance settings page, expand the Custom Compliance category:
For Windows:
- On the Compliance settings page, expand Custom Compliance and set Custom compliance to Require.
- For Select your discovery script, select Click to select, and then enter the name of a script that you previously added to the Microsoft Intune admin center. This script must be uploaded before you begin to create the policy. Choose Select to continue to the next step.
- For Upload and validate the JSON file with your custom compliance settings, select the folder icon, and then find and add the JSON file for Windows that you want to use with this policy. For assistance with the JSON, see Create a JSON for custom compliance settings.
For Linux:
- On the Compliance settings page, select Add settings to open the Settings picker.
- Select Custom Compliance. Then close the settings picker.
- Switch Require Custom Compliance to True. T
- For Select your discovery script, select Select a script. Then select a script that’s been previously added to the Microsoft Intune admin center. This script must be uploaded before you begin to create the policy.
- For Select your rules file, select the folder icon and then locate and add the JSON file for Linux that you want to use with this policy. For assistance with the JSON, see Create a JSON for custom compliance settings.
Wait while Intune validates the JSON. Problems that need to be fixed appear onscreen. After validation of the JSON contents, the rules from the JSON appear in table format.
On the Actions for noncompliance tab, select a sequence of actions to apply automatically to devices that don't meet this compliance policy.
You can add multiple actions, and configure schedules and details for some actions. For example, you might change the schedule of the default action Mark device noncompliant to occur after one day. You can then add an action to send an email to the user when the device isn't compliant to warn them of that status. You can also add actions that lock or retire devices that remain noncompliant.
For information about the actions you can configure, see Add actions for noncompliant devices, including how to create notification emails to send to your users.
Another example includes the use of Locations where you add at least one location to a compliance policy. In this case, the default action for noncompliance applies when you select at least one location. If the device isn't connected to any of the selected locations, it's considered not compliant. You can configure the schedule to give your users a grace period, such as one day.
On the Scope tags tab, select tags to help filter policies to specific groups, such as
US-NC IT TeamorJohnGlenn_ITDepartment. After you add the settings, you can also add a scope tag to your compliance policies.For information on using scope tags, see Use scope tags to filter policies.
On the Assignments tab, assign the policy to your groups.
Select Add groups, and then assign the policy to one or more groups. The policy will apply to these groups when you save the policy after the next step.
Policies for Linux don't support user-based assignments and can only be assigned to device groups.
On the Review + create tab, review the settings and select Create when ready to save the compliance policy.
The users or devices targeted by your policy are evaluated for compliance when they check in with Intune.
Refresh cycle times
Intune uses different refresh cycles to check for updates to compliance policies. If the device recently enrolled, the check-in runs more frequently. Policy and profile refresh cycles lists the estimated refresh times.
At any time, users can open the Company Portal app, and sync the device to immediately check for policy updates.
Assign an InGracePeriod status
The InGracePeriod status for a compliance policy is a value. This value is determined by the combination of a device's grace period, and a device's actual status for that compliance policy.
Specifically, if a device has a NonCompliant status for an assigned compliance policy, and:
- The device has no grace period assigned to it, then the assigned value for the compliance policy is NonCompliant
- The device has a grace period that's expired, then the assigned value for the compliance policy is NonCompliant
- The device has a grace period that's in the future, then the assigned value for the compliance policy is InGracePeriod
The following table summarizes these points:
| Actual compliance status | Value of assigned grace period | Effective compliance status |
|---|---|---|
| NonCompliant | No grace period assigned | NonCompliant |
| NonCompliant | Yesterday's date | NonCompliant |
| NonCompliant | Tomorrow's date | InGracePeriod |
For more information about monitoring device compliance policies, see Monitor Intune Device compliance policies.
Assign a resulting compliance policy status
If a device has multiple compliance policies, and the device has different compliance statuses for two or more of the assigned compliance policies, then a single resulting compliance status is assigned. This assignment is based on a conceptual severity level assigned to each compliance status. Each compliance status has the following severity level:
| Status | Severity |
|---|---|
| Unknown | 1 |
| NotApplicable | 2 |
| Compliant | 3 |
| InGracePeriod | 4 |
| NonCompliant | 5 |
| Error | 6 |
When a device has multiple compliance policies, then the highest severity level of all the policies is assigned to that device.
For example, a device has three compliance policies assigned to it: one Unknown status (severity = 1), one Compliant status (severity = 3), and one InGracePeriod status (severity = 4). The InGracePeriod status has the highest severity level. So, all three policies have the InGracePeriod compliance status.