How to create an Azure Network Security Group Flow log with Azure PowerShell - azure

Question

I want to create a NSG flow log for the network security group of a given Virtual Machine and link to a given Storage Account with PowerShell.
How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

This can be achieved with this sequence of operations:
determine the NSG linked to a Virtual Machine
get or create a `NetworkWatcher for the location of the NSG
find a suitable storage account
set a Flow Log configuration, if there is none existing
param(
# RegEx pattern to find your first VM in your current subscription
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 1)]
[string]$vmNamePattern,
# RegEx pattern to find a storage account in your current subscription
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 2)]
[string]$storageNamePattern
)
$vm = Get-AzVM | Where-Object { $_.Name -match $vmNamePattern } | Select-Object -First 1
$nic = Get-AzNetworkInterface -ResourceId $vm.NetworkProfile.NetworkInterfaces[0].Id
$sn = Get-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -ResourceId $nic.IpConfigurations[0].Subnet.Id
$nsgRes = Get-AzResource -ResourceId $sn.NetworkSecurityGroup.Id
$nsg = Get-AzNetworkSecurityGroup -ResourceGroupName $nsgRes.ResourceGroupName -Name $nsgRes.ResourceName
# create or get NetworkWatcher
$nw = Get-AzNetworkWatcher -ResourceGroupName NetworkWatcherRg | ? { $_.Location -eq $nsg.Location }
if (!$nw) {
New-AzNetworkWatcher -ResourceGroupName NetworkWatcherRg -Location $nsg.Location -Name $("NetworkWatcher_" + $nsg.Location)
$nw = Get-AzNetworkWatcher -ResourceGroupName NetworkWatcherRg | ? { $_.Location -eq $nsg.Location }
}
# detect first viable storage account
$storageAccount = Get-AzStorageAccount | Where-Object { $_.StorageAccountName -match $storageNamePattern -and $_.PrimaryEndpoints.Blob -match "^http" } | Select-Object -First 1
# get or set NSG flow log if not yet established
$fl = Get-AzNetworkWatcherFlowLogStatus -NetworkWatcher $nw -TargetResourceId $nsg.Id
if (!$fl) {
# https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/azure/network-watcher/network-watcher-nsg-flow-logging-powershell
Set-AzNetworkWatcherConfigFlowLog -NetworkWatcher $nw -TargetResourceId $nsg.Id -StorageAccountId $storageAccount.Id -EnableFlowLog $true -FormatType Json -FormatVersion 2
}