Azure Networking Tutorials

1. Centralized Policy Management

Azure Firewall enables centralized policy management across your subscriptions and virtual networks. This means you can define and manage network traffic rules from a single pane of glass, ensuring consistent security posture across your Azure environment.

• Define Network Rules (IP, Port, Protocol)
• Define Application Rules (FQDN, HTTP/S ports)
• Define NAT Rules for inbound access

2. Threat Intelligence-Based Filtering

Leverage Microsoft's threat intelligence feed to automatically block malicious IP addresses, domains, and URLs. This proactive feature helps protect your network from known threats and botnets.

• Enable or disable threat intelligence feeds
• Configure threat intelligence modes (e.g., Deny, Alert, Off)
• Integrates with Azure Security Center for enhanced visibility

3. Network Address Translation (NAT)

Azure Firewall supports both Destination Network Address Translation (DNAT) and Source Network Address Translation (SNAT). This is crucial for controlling inbound and outbound traffic, allowing you to expose specific services securely or hide internal network details.

• DNAT: Forward traffic from a public IP address and port to a private IP address and port within your VNet.
• SNAT: Automatically provides SNAT for outbound traffic from your VNet to the internet.

Example of a DNAT rule:

{
    "name": "webserver-inbound",
    "properties": {
        "ruleType": "Dnat",
        "protocols": [ "TCP" ],
        "sourceAddresses": [ "*" ],
        "destinationAddresses": [ "203.0.113.5" ],
        "destinationPorts": [ "80" ],
        "translatedAddress": "10.0.1.4",
        "translatedPort": "80"
    }
}

4. Highly Available and Scalable

Azure Firewall is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering, meaning it's designed with high availability and scalability in mind. It automatically scales to meet demand and provides resilience without requiring you to manage underlying infrastructure.

• Built-in high availability across Availability Zones
• Automatic scaling based on network traffic
• No need for manual patching or updates

5. Network Rule Processing

Network rules allow you to allow or deny traffic based on IP address, port, and protocol. These rules are evaluated before application rules.

• Source Type: IP Address, IP Range, Service Tag
• Protocol: TCP, UDP, ICMP, Any
• Destination Type: IP Address, IP Range, Service Tag, FQDN Tag

6. Application Rule Processing

Application rules enable granular control over HTTP and HTTPS traffic based on fully qualified domain names (FQDNs). This allows for more precise control than just IP-based rules.

• Protocol: Http, Https
• Source Type: IP Address, IP Range, Service Tag
• Target FQDNs: Specify allowed or denied domains
• Web Categories: Block or allow access to entire categories of websites.

7. Private IP Address Support

Azure Firewall supports traffic inspection and filtering for private IP address spaces, making it ideal for securing communication within your VNet and between your on-premises networks and Azure.

8. Integration with Azure Services

Azure Firewall integrates seamlessly with other Azure services to provide a comprehensive security solution.

• Azure Monitor: For logging and analytics of firewall activity.
• Azure Security Center: For threat detection and security recommendations.
• Azure Firewall Policy: For managing firewall rulesets.
• Azure Virtual WAN: For centralized hub-and-spoke network architecture.