Multi-Admin Approval best practices

These practices help you get the protection you expect from Multi-Admin Approval, ~~best~~without ~~practices~~it getting in your own way.

Choosing policies

Protect the policies first. Create the Action Policy Delete and Action Policy Edit policies before the others, so the protection itself can only be changed with multi-admin approval. See Deploying Multi-Admin Approval. Protect both the data and the schedule. A Volume Delete policy stops volumes being deleted without agreement; a Snapshot scheduler Edit policy also keeps the point-in-time copies of that data safe. They cover different things, so deploy both. Configure each site. Policies aren't replicated, so set up the same policies on every replication target you want protected.

Choosing reviewers and thresholds

Name more reviewers than the minimum. Three reviewers with two required approvals, for example, means an operation is never stuck because one reviewer is unavailable. Choose the threshold with the initiator in mind. An initiator who is also an authorized reviewer counts as the first approval. To require two approvals in addition to the initiator, set the minimum to three. Use individual, named Admin accounts for reviewers, each with a personal email address — not a shared account. Every approval and decline is recorded against a person, which is what makes the audit trail useful.

Day to day

Review policy changes promptly. While a change to a policy is waiting for approval, new requests for operations under that policy are declined until the change is approved or cancelled. See Pending Actions.

Check for pending reviews regularly. Don't rely on email alone:

action_policies pending_actions list --waitingForMyReview

Cancel requests you no longer need. A declined request stays open, and the objects in it stay locked against other changes, until it's cancelled. Once a declined request isn't needed, cancel it.

Route the audit trail to a team that reads it. Every step is recorded and raised as a notification in the Audit category; see Pending Actions and Notifications.