Azure Virtual Network Documentation

What is Azure Virtual Network?

Azure Virtual Network (VNet) is the foundational building block for your private network in Azure. It enables Azure resources, such as virtual machines, to communicate securely with each other, with the internet, and with your on-premises networks. VNets are logically isolated from other VNets in Azure, giving you a private and secure cloud environment.

A Virtual Network is region-specific and spans all availability zones within that region. You can segment your VNet into subnets, which are smaller ranges of IP addresses within the VNet. This allows you to group and isolate resources within your VNet.

Key Concepts:

• IP Addressing: Define your own private IP address space for your VNet.
• Subnets: Divide your VNet into smaller address ranges for better organization and security.
• Network Security Groups (NSGs): Filter network traffic to and from Azure resources in an Azure virtual network.
• Route Tables: Define custom routes to override Azure's default system routes.
• Peering: Connect multiple VNets together to enable resources in different VNets to communicate.
• Service Endpoints: Securely connect to Azure services over the Azure backbone network.
• Private Endpoints: Access Azure PaaS services from your VNet using a private IP address.

Azure Virtual Network provides a flexible and powerful way to build and manage your cloud network infrastructure, offering robust security, high availability, and seamless connectivity options.

Example Scenario:

Imagine deploying a multi-tier application in Azure. You can use a Virtual Network to:

• Create a subnet for your web servers.
• Create another subnet for your application servers.
• Create a third subnet for your database servers.
• Use NSGs to control traffic flow between these subnets, ensuring only authorized communication.
• Connect your on-premises development environment to this VNet for seamless integration.

Getting Started:

To start using Azure Virtual Network, you can create one through the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or Azure PowerShell. Here's a basic example using Azure CLI:

This command creates a VNet named 'MyVNet' in the 'eastus' region within the 'MyResourceGroup' with an address space of 10.0.0.0/16.