How to Connect to Azure Virtual Network for Secure and Reliable Access

Connecting to an Azure Virtual Network is a crucial step in setting up a secure and reliable infrastructure for your applications. This involves creating a Virtual Network (VNet) in your Azure subscription.

To connect to your Azure Virtual Network, you'll need to create a Virtual Network Gateway, which allows you to establish secure and private connections to your VNet.

A Virtual Network Gateway is a type of network device that enables secure communication between your on-premises network and your Azure Virtual Network.

Troubleshooting is a crucial step in ensuring a smooth connection to your Azure virtual network. To confirm that virtual networks are peered, you can check effective routes.

You can do this by checking routes for a network interface in any subnet in a virtual network. If a virtual network peering exists, all subnets within the virtual network have routes with next hop type Virtual network peering, for each address space in each peered virtual network.

Azure Network Watcher can also help you troubleshoot connectivity to a virtual machine in a peered virtual network. A connectivity check lets you see how traffic is routed from a source virtual machine's network interface to a destination virtual machine's network interface.

If this caught your attention, see: Vnet Peering Azure

To troubleshoot virtual networks, check effective routes for a network interface in any subnet in a virtual network. If a virtual network peering exists, all subnets within the virtual network have routes with next hop type Virtual network peering, for each address space in each peered virtual network.

You can also use Azure Network Watcher to troubleshoot connectivity to a virtual machine in a peered virtual network. A connectivity check lets you see how traffic is routed from a source virtual machine's network interface to a destination virtual machine's network interface.

Virtual network peering issues can be diagnosed by checking routes and using Azure Network Watcher.

A unique perspective: Azure Networkwatcher

Removing a virtual network can be a bit of a hassle, but it's sometimes necessary.

To delete a virtual network, you'll need to delete all the resources deployed to it, including the virtual network gateway. Creating a virtual network gateway can take up to 45 minutes, so be patient.

If you've already deployed resources to the virtual network, you won't be able to change the address space later. This means you'll need to delete the network and all its resources before recreating it.

Alternatively, you could create a new virtual network and peer it with the existing one, but this can be complicated.

Here are some important things to keep in mind when deleting a virtual network:

So, before deleting a virtual network, make sure you have a plan in place for the resources that will be affected.

You can connect virtual networks in Azure using VNet-to-VNet connections, which are similar to creating a site-to-site IPsec connection to an on-premises location. This connection type uses a VPN gateway to provide a secure tunnel with IPsec/IKE.

The traffic between virtual machines in peered virtual networks is routed directly through the Microsoft backbone infrastructure, not through a gateway or over the public internet. This reduces latency and increases network throughput.

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To create a VNet-to-VNet connection, you can use the Azure portal or Azure CLI. The connection process is simple and straightforward, and you can verify the connection status in the Azure portal.

Here are the benefits of using VNet-to-VNet connections:

* They provide cross-region geo-redundancy and geo-presence.They support regional multi-tier applications with isolation or administrative boundaries.

By following these steps, you can establish a secure and reliable connection between your virtual networks in Azure.

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You can use a virtual network's gateway to connect to an on-premises network. Each virtual network can have its own gateway, which allows it to connect to an on-premises network.

A virtual network can use its gateway to connect to an on-premises network, but it can't have its own gateway if it's using a remote gateway in a peered virtual network.

You can configure a virtual network to use a remote gateway in a peered virtual network, which allows it to connect to an on-premises network through the peered virtual network.

A virtual network can't have more than one gateway, it must be either a local or remote gateway in the peered virtual network.

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There are two main ways to connect virtual networks in Azure: VNet-to-VNet connections and virtual network peering.

You can configure a VNet-to-VNet connection to connect virtual networks, which is similar to creating a site-to-site IPsec connection to an on-premises location. This connection type uses a VPN gateway to provide a secure tunnel with IPsec/IKE.

A VNet-to-VNet connection is typically faster and easier to create than a site-to-site connection. However, if you need to specify more address spaces for the local network gateway or plan to add more connections later, you should create the configuration using the site-to-site connection steps instead.

You can use virtual network peering to connect virtual networks, which allows resources in one virtual network to directly connect with resources in the other virtual network. This type of connection is useful for cross-region geo-redundancy and geo-presence, as well as for regional multi-tier applications with isolation or administrative boundaries.

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Here are some key differences between VNet-to-VNet connections and virtual network peering:

With virtual network peering, you can apply network security groups to block access to other virtual networks or subnets. You can also configure virtual network peering to allow or deny specific access between peered virtual networks.

To verify your VNet-to-VNet connections, you can locate the virtual network gateway in the Azure portal, select Connections, and view the Connections page for the virtual network gateway. After the connection is established, you'll see the Status values change to Connected.

To verify your virtual network peering connections, you can use the Azure portal to check the peering state of the virtual networks. The peering state will change to Connected once the peering is established.

Additional reading: How to Change Virtual Network/subnet in Azure Vm

To connect RA/VA to CA, you need to create a connection on the other side from the RAVAtoCAVirtualNetworkGateway to the CAtoVARAVirtualNetworkGateway. Make sure to use the same shared key as before.

In the portal, locate the other virtual network gateway that needs a connection. Follow the same steps as before, replacing the values to create a connection from RAVAtoCAVirtualNetworkGateway to CAtoVARAVirtualNetworkGateway.

The connection will enable communication between RA/VA and CA, allowing data to flow between the two virtual networks.

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Configuring connections to an Azure virtual network involves creating a secure tunnel between your virtual network and another virtual network or an on-premises location. You can create a VNet-to-VNet connection, which is similar to creating a site-to-site IPsec connection to an on-premises location.

To create a VNet-to-VNet connection, you can use the Azure portal and follow the steps outlined in Example 4. Before creating the connection, make sure that the address space for your virtual network doesn't overlap with any of the address spaces you want to connect to.

There are two types of connections you can create: VNet-to-VNet and IPsec site-to-site connections. To create an IPsec site-to-site connection, you must create a local network gateway before creating the connection. You can also use a shared key for the connection, but make sure it's exactly the same for both sides.

Here are the general steps to create a connection:

Connecting virtual networks is a crucial step in configuring connections. For peered virtual networks, resources in either virtual network can directly connect with resources in the peered virtual network.

Network latency between virtual machines in peered virtual networks in the same region is the same as the latency within a single virtual network. The network throughput is based on the bandwidth allowed for the virtual machine, proportionate to its size.

There isn't any extra restriction on bandwidth within the peering. Traffic between virtual machines in peered virtual networks is routed directly through the Microsoft backbone infrastructure, not through a gateway or over the public internet.

You can apply network security groups in either virtual network to block access to other virtual networks or subnets. Full connectivity is the default option when you configure virtual network peering.

To learn more about network security groups, see Security groups.

Here are some key benefits of connecting virtual networks:

You can also use gateways to connect virtual networks. Each virtual network can have its own gateway, and you can use gateways to connect to an on-premises network.

Service chaining is a powerful feature that allows you to direct traffic from one virtual network to a virtual appliance or gateway in a peered network through user-defined routes (UDRs).

To enable service chaining, you need to configure UDRs that point to virtual machines in peered virtual networks as the next hop IP address. UDRs can also point to virtual network gateways.

You can deploy a hub-and-spoke network topology where the hub virtual network hosts infrastructure components like a network virtual appliance or a VPN gateway. All the spoke virtual networks can then peer with the hub virtual network.

Traffic flows through network virtual appliances or VPN gateways in the hub virtual network. Virtual network peering enables the next hop in a UDR to be the IP address of a virtual machine in the peered virtual network, or a VPN gateway.

To create a hub-and-spoke network topology, you can follow the instructions in the article, which provides a detailed guide on how to set it up in Azure.

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Azure Cloud Shell is an interactive shell environment hosted by Azure that lets you work with Azure services through your browser. You can use either Bash or PowerShell with Cloud Shell.

To start Azure Cloud Shell, you can select the Try It button in the upper-right corner of a code or command block, or go to https://shell.azure.com.

Azure Cloud Shell has preinstalled commands that let you run code without having to install anything on your local environment. This is a huge time-saver, especially for beginners.

To use Azure Cloud Shell, you need to start it, copy code or commands from a block, paste them into the Cloud Shell session, and then run them by pressing Enter. If you're using Windows or Linux, press Ctrl+Shift+V to paste, and if you're on macOS, press Cmd+Shift+V.

If you prefer to install and use PowerShell locally, you need to have the Azure PowerShell module version 1.0.0 or later installed, and then run Connect-AzAccount to create a connection with Azure.

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Here are the ways to get started with Azure Cloud Shell:

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create one before you begin. If you're running PowerShell locally, make sure you have the latest version of the Azure PowerShell module installed.

Configuring Connections requires creating the right certificates for a secure connection. You can use a self-signed certificate or your enterprise certificate.

There are two ways to create a self-signed certificate: using makecert.exe or Powershell. Makecert.exe is deprecated but can be used if you have an older version of Powershell.

The fastest way to create a self-signed certificate using Powershell is to use a script that creates a self-signed certificate and exports it as a string to the clipboard.

You can download the VPN client after creating the self-signed certificate. If the client is still disabled, reload the point-to-site configuration to enable it.

Here's a script to create the VPN certificate and client certificate for quick reference:

After creating the client certificate, you should be able to connect to your Azure virtual network.

You can create a second virtual network in the same region as the first one or in a different region. This means you have flexibility in designing your network architecture.

The second virtual network doesn't require a Bastion deployment, but you can connect to both virtual machines with the same Bastion deployment after the network peer. This is a convenient feature that saves resources.

You can create the Bastion subnet with az network vnet subnet create, which is a necessary step for setting up the Bastion host.

A public IP address is required for the Azure Bastion host, which you can create with az network public-ip create.

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Creating a second virtual network is a straightforward process. You can create it using the New-AzVirtualNetwork command, specifying the address prefix, such as 10.1.0.0/16.

The second virtual network can be in the same region as the first one or in a different region. You don't need a Bastion deployment for the second virtual network.

To create a Bastion subnet, use the az network vnet subnet create command. This will allow you to connect to both virtual machines with the same Bastion deployment.

A public IP address is also required for the Azure Bastion host. You can create one using the az network public-ip create command, specifying a name like public-ip-bastion.

Here are the steps to create a second virtual network, summarized in a table:

After creating the second virtual network, you can create a VM in it using the az network vnet create command.