Azure VPN Gateway

Overview

Azure VPN Gateway is a managed VPN service that you can use to send encrypted traffic between your on-premises network and Azure over the public Internet. It can also be used to send encrypted traffic between Azure virtual networks (VNets).

VPN Gateway offers several benefits, including:

• Secure Connectivity: Encrypts traffic between your network and Azure, ensuring data privacy and integrity.
• Cost-Effective: Leverages the public Internet for connectivity, reducing the need for dedicated private lines.
• Scalability: Easily scales to meet your changing connectivity needs.
• Reliability: Provides highly available connections with support for active-standby and active-active configurations.

Types of VPN Gateways

Azure VPN Gateway supports two primary types of connections:

Key Features

• Connection Options: Supports IKEv1 and IKEv2 protocols for S2S connections.
• Encryption: Offers strong encryption algorithms like AES-256.
• Gateway SKUs: Various SKUs are available, offering different performance levels and features (e.g., Basic, VpnGw1-5, VpnGw1AZ-5AZ).
• BGP Support: Enables dynamic routing for complex network topologies.
• Azure Availability Zones: Supports zone-redundant gateways for higher availability.
• Custom IPsec/IKE Policies: Allows you to define specific encryption and integrity algorithms for your IPsec tunnels.
• ExpressRoute Coexistence: Can be deployed alongside ExpressRoute circuits for a hybrid connectivity solution.

Deployment and Configuration

Deploying a VPN Gateway involves several steps:

1. Create a Virtual Network (VNet): Ensure you have a VNet in Azure for your workloads.
2. Create a Gateway Subnet: A dedicated subnet named GatewaySubnet is required for the VPN gateway.
3. Create the VPN Gateway: Select the desired SKU, connection type (VNet-to-VNet, S2S, P2S), and configure IP addressing.
4. Configure Connections: Establish connections to your on-premises VPN device or other VNets. This typically involves shared keys (for S2S) or certificates (for P2S).
5. Configure On-Premises Devices: Ensure your on-premises VPN device is compatible and configured to match the Azure VPN Gateway settings.

Example: Creating a VPN Gateway (Conceptual CLI)

Here's a conceptual example using Azure CLI to create a VNet and a basic VPN Gateway:

# Variables
RG_NAME="myResourceGroup"
VNET_NAME="myVNet"
LOCATION="eastus"
GW_SUBNET_NAME="GatewaySubnet"
GW_SUBNET_CIDR="10.1.255.0/27"
GW_NAME="myVpnGateway"
GW_PIP_NAME="myVpnGatewayPublicIp"
GW_SKU="VpnGw1"
GW_TYPE="Vpn"
VpnGwGeneration="Generation1"

# Create Resource Group
az group create --name $RG_NAME --location $LOCATION

# Create Virtual Network
az network vnet create \
    --name $VNET_NAME \
    --resource-group $RG_NAME \
    --location $LOCATION \
    --address-prefix 10.1.0.0/16 \
    --subnet-name default \
    --subnet-prefix 10.1.0.0/24

# Add Gateway Subnet
az network vnet subnet create \
    --name $GW_SUBNET_NAME \
    --resource-group $RG_NAME \
    --vnet-name $VNET_NAME \
    --address-prefix $GW_SUBNET_CIDR

# Create Public IP Address for the Gateway
az network public-ip create \
    --name $GW_PIP_NAME \
    --resource-group $RG_NAME \
    --location $LOCATION \
    --allocation-method Dynamic

# Create the VPN Gateway
az network vpn-gateway create \
    --name $GW_NAME \
    --resource-group $RG_NAME \
    --location $LOCATION \
    --public-ip-address $GW_PIP_NAME \
    --sku $GW_SKU \
    --gateway-type $GW_TYPE \
    --vpn-gateway-generation $VpnGwGeneration

Management and Monitoring

Once deployed, you can manage and monitor your VPN Gateway through the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or ARM templates.

• Monitoring: Track connection status, bandwidth usage, and latency using Azure Monitor and diagnostics settings.
• Troubleshooting: Utilize diagnostic logs and connection troubleshooters to identify and resolve issues.
• Scaling: Scale your gateway up or down by changing the SKU to meet evolving performance requirements.
• Updates: Azure manages underlying infrastructure updates, ensuring your gateway remains up-to-date.