Security kv

Key vault naming convention

The CAF abbreviation for Key vault is kv. Names can be 3 to 24 characters long and allow alphanumerics and hyphens. The name must be globally unique across all of Azure.

Naming rules

CAF abbreviation	kv
Length	3 to 24 characters
Allowed characters	Alphanumerics (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), hyphens
Scope of uniqueness	Global (must be unique across all of Azure)
CAF pattern	kv-{workload}-{environment}-{region}-{instance}

Worth knowing: Globally unique name. Start with a letter; no consecutive hyphens.

Rules follow Microsoft's resource naming rules and CAF abbreviations. Some resource types have extra start/end character restrictions, so verify against the official docs before locking in a convention.

Example names

Generated by the same engine as the name generator, so length and character rules are already applied.

Scenario	Generated name	Length
Payments API, production	`kv-payments-prod-eus-001`	24/24
Web app, development	`kv-webapp-dev-weu-002`	21/24
Analytics with company prefix	`kv-analytics-stage-001` Dropped company, region to fit the 24-char limit.	22/24

Naming in Terraform and Bicep

Build the name from variables so one module produces the right name in every environment. The 24-character limit is enforced in the expression.

Terraform

locals {
  key_vault_name = substr("kv-${var.workload}-${var.environment}-${var.region}-001", 0, 24)
}

Bicep

var keyVaultName = take('kv-${workload}-${environment}-${region}-001', 24)

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Related Security resources

bas Azure Bastion kvmhsm Key Vault Managed HSM id Managed identity sshkey SSH key vpng VPN Gateway vcn VPN connection vst VPN site waf Web Application Firewall (WAF) policy

See the full list of Azure resource naming rules or read the complete CAF naming guide.