Azure private VMs access using Automation runbooks - azure

I have created virtual network and VMs with only private ips inside virtual network.I have created an Automation Account and powershell runbooks inside this automation account.
My goal is to access these VMs using Azure Automation Account Runbooks, but I am not sure how can I do this.
I have read about Azure private endpoint, and created a private endpoint where private link resources is my automation account.
I can see one network interface is created with a private IP from my virtual network but this also I am not able to figure out how to use for access my VMs using runbooks.
What can I do to access my Azure private VMs using runbooks?

You might want to look at Hybrid Runbook Workers.
Private Endpoints enable private inbound connections to the Automation Account, however your aim is to go the other direction and enable runbooks from the automation account to connect to VMs inside your VNET.
Using Hybrid Runbook Workers you basically link a VM to your automation account and the runbook is then executed on that VM (the worker). This way you should be able to access internal resources.

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Azure Storage - Firewall and Endpoints usage

I have recently come across the Private Endpoint feature in Azure Storage and trying to implement it for secure access from a VNet. However, I am getting access issues while using Firewall, Virtual Network Service Endpoint and Private Endpoint all together.
I have two VNets (VNet1 & VNet2) in my subscription and an on-premises machine with Public IP to connect to Azure Storage. Following is my setup.
VNet1 with a Subnet enabled with Service Endpoint feature is whitelisted in Storage account firewall.
Next, I have created a Private Endpoint to this storage account (for blob service) from VNet2 which is also hosted inside the same Vnet.
Finally, I have whitelisted the Public IP of my on-premises VM to connect to the storage account under Firewall section.
Given the above setup, when I am trying to access this storage account blob containers inside a VM placed under VNet2, I am getting authorization issues.
May I please check if this setup is valid? Do Private Endpoint and Service Endpoint features work in Parallel?
Yes, private endpoints can be created in subnets that use Service Endpoints. Clients in a subnet can thus connect to one storage account using private endpoint, while using service endpoints to access others.
There are multiple ways to connect to storage account:
Using a private endpoint (private link) to connect to storage account: Please find the referred document here.
Using Service Endpoint and Private endpoint: Please find the referred document here.
You can find more details in this public document.

How can I connect an existing Azure storage account to a private link?

The Azure Security Centre is great at highlighting security issues, but not so great at helping you remediate them. For example, it tells me that I should connect a Storage Account to a Private Link, but the manual remediation points me to creating the link when creating the Storage Account, so, useless for existing ones. Can it be done, and if so how?
As #Sujit Singh's comment, to connect a Storage Account to a Private Link, you need to create private endpoints for your Azure Storage accounts in your Azure virtual network (VNet). This allows clients on a VNet to securely access data over a Private Link.
The private endpoint uses an IP address from the VNet address space
for your storage account service. Network traffic between the clients
on the VNet and the storage account traverses over the VNet and a
private link on the Microsoft backbone network, eliminating exposure
from the public internet.
For an existing storage account, you can add a private endpoint from storage account ---> networking ---> private endpoint connections ---> private endpoint.
For more detailed information on creating a private endpoint for your storage account, refer to the following articles:
Connect privately to a storage account from the Storage Account experience in the Azure portal
Create a private endpoint using the Private Link Center in the Azure portal
Create a private endpoint using Azure CLI
Create a private endpoint using Azure PowerShell

Azure Functions storage account network security

I am currently working with a client that requires access to all Azure resource locking down as much as possible and I am having problems with the Storage Account that is utilised by our Azure Functions.
With the Firewalls and Virtual Networks blade in portal set to "All Networks" I am able to deploy to the Function App and it runs without issue.
However once I enable the access restriction by checking "Selected Networks"no matter what virtual network subnets I enter or IP Addresses I can not get the communication to work
I have entered the Outbound IP Addresses of our Consumption based Function App and also check that the additional IP Addresses from the Powershell and all have been added to the whitelist. I have also added all the CIDR IP ranges of the local Azure datacenter but again it does not work.
The problem we have is that once the access restrictions have been put into place we are unable to deploy to the Function App and the app no longer runs. Is this scenario supported and what is the mechanism for tying down access to the Storage Account so that only the Function App can utilise it.
As far as I know, you have two options to restrict access to your storage account from your function app or web app.
Whitelist the outboundIpAddresses and possibleOutboundIpAddresses of the function app in the firewall of the storage account. However, it does not work if the Azure function app and Azure storage located in the same region refer to Sam's answer.
when you hit the storage account from your function, because they are
in the same region as each other, all the traffic goes over the
internal Azure network on internal IP's, not the public IPs listed in
the web app, and so is not allowed over the firewall.
If your resources were in different regions, you could use the network section of function app to allow function app to access resources in a VNet, then enable service endpoint for Microsoft.Storage in this app integration subnet. But you need Azure Functions Premium plan referring to this tutorial: integrate Functions with an Azure virtual network.
Sometimes, the deployment order for networking is important. In this case, you will deploy the followings:
Firstly, you could deploy new VNet integration with an unused subnet. After the VNet Integration is completed and the function app is restarted, you could enable service endpoint for this subnet. In the end, you could add the subnet in the firewall of the storage account.
Note that the new version is in Preview, currently. You could also check these characteristics and get more references from this thread.

How to switch off the endpoints of Azure Virtual Machines(VMs) by default, not deletion afterwards?

How to configure endpoints of Azure VMs, having them shut down by default, when or before I creating VMs?
In another word, how to create Azure VMs without any endpoints assignment?
Removal after VMs creation does not count as the solution for this question.
When using PowerShell / CLI to create ASM VMs you need to explicitly declare the endpoints. See, for example, here.
ARM doesn't have the concept of endpoints. If you do not declare a Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses resource and attach it to a NIC (and that to the VM) then the VM won't be on the public internet for inbound traffic.

How to Connect Azure Worker/Web role to Azure Iaas VMs without using public IP's?

We want to run MongoDB and some custom services on Azure Iaas VMs and connect to them with our roles but we do not want to have public IP exposure on the VMs.
If possible what is the best way of doing this?
If not possible is this on the roadmap?
We can add the VM's under the same cloud service and they can communicate happily, the roles are in same deployment so they communicate, but issue between the vm's and roles. We appreciate that the Iaas stuff is still in preview.
Thanks
If you have your Windows Azure Web/Worker Role and Windows Azure Virtual Machine in the same DC you can access them directly using internal IP address using Virtual Networking (Vnet) using internal Endpoints. To achieve it first you would need to create a Virtual Network and then add your Virtual Machine to this VNet. VNet will give your internal IP address and your Web/Worker Role can communicate to this internal IP address.
You can not do mix mode deployment directly from Windows Azure Preview Portal (it is not supported in preview yet) however you can use PowerShell VNet cmdlets to get it configured and working. To need further assistance with VNet team you can contact them directly here.

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