TLDR;
I got Azure credits, how do I make a simple VPN?
I recently got some Azure credits through a hackathon. How do I create a simple VPN on Azure. It need not be too feature rich, I just wanna use it to access blocked or region specific websites.
I saw on Azure portal that there is virtual machine and virtual network. I don't exactly need a VM, just want to redirect all network traffic through the virtual network.
How do I do this in Azure, Has anyone done anything similar in Azure?
Free VPN are slow and have bugs and paid VPN are expensive & I would like to use my azure credits to create my own VPN.
It sounds like you want to use Azure VPN similar to a consumer VPN like ExpressVPN or NordVPN which protects your client while you surf the Internet. Azure VPN is not designed to be used to surf the Internet. Azure VPN is a service that allows you to create a secure Site-to-Site or Point-to-Site VPN into an Azure Vnet. This allows you to communicate securely with resources in Azure without exposing them with a Public IP.
A VPN gateway is a specific type of virtual network gateway that is used to send encrypted traffic between an Azure virtual network and an on-premises location over the public Internet. You can also use a VPN gateway to send encrypted traffic between Azure virtual networks over the Microsoft network
Related
We have a combination of people working from home and people in an office. The office internet has a static IP and the router allows people outside to VPN in. We use the static IP to allow restricted access to our own Azure & AWS resources, but also to clients Azure, AWS and on-site physical hardware.
We are moving to a multi tenancy office that provides a communal internet connection for all tenants.
We'd like to set up some form of VPN in Azure that employees can connect to, authenticated by their O365 accounts (already used to log into their machines), that allows both access to our azure, but also an onward static IP that we can provide to customers who use Azure, AWS or on-site physical hardware.
Note that: You can deploy a VPN gateway in Azure and create a site-to-site VPN with the on-prem VPN router and also another site-to-site connection between Azure and AWS, then configure P2S VPN on the same VPN gateway with AD authentication using Radius server.
I created an Azure virtual network along with gateway subnet and virtual network gateway, gateway type as VPN and VPN type as route-based like below:
You can see public ip, this public IP address will be used to configure on-premise VPN device
Created local network gateway like below:
Created site-to-site VPN connection between virtual network gateway and on-premises VPN device like below.
In Azure portal -> type connection;
In virtual network gateway, under setting -> Add connection like below:
And try to verify the connection in local network gateway like below:
You can view the connection in the virtual network gateway.
Reference:
Tutorial - Configure a BGP-enabled connection between Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) using the portal - Azure VPN Gateway | Microsoft Learn
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/point-to-site-vpn-client-configuration-radius-password
can anyone explain difference between Azure Application Gateway, Virtual Network Gateway, Virtual WAN, ExpressRoute, Arc and Private Link, please?
It seems to me all services are pretty similar helping with connecting either on-prem to Azure, in-Azure to in-Azure or public to Azure.
They're similar in that they all involve network traffic, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.
Application Gateway is a Layer 7 load balancing service with advanced features like SSL termination. It's used to route client requests to your applications.
Virtual Network Gateway is a VPN gateway for point-to-site (user) and site-to-site (office/datacenter) VPN connections to your own Azure VNETs. This would, for example, allow you to RDP into Azure VMs from your on-prem office using their private IPs.
ExpressRoute is similar to site-to-site, however it doesn't use IpSec tunnels, it's a dedicated, unencrypted connection from your location directly into Microsoft's backbone. (i.e. you don't traverse the public internet). There's no encryption and the connection is faster. This is a service you need to work with a 3rd party internet provider to implement.
Virtual WAN is more like a networking hub where there would be many site-to-site, point-to-site, ExpressRoute, etc... connections spanning a wide area (as the name implies). This would be for large enterpise organizations with many on-prem locations.
Arc is a means of adding your on-prem resources into Azure for management. e.g. you have a physical server somewhere and you want to manage it though ARM/portal.
Azure Private Link is a feature of many Azure services (storage, SQL PaaS, etc..) which allows you to create a private DNS record and assign a private IP address on your internal VNETs. This is used when you want to disable all public network access to a resource and only allow access from within your own VNET.
I have barely scratched the surface of the differences here, but suffice it to say, there are many differences. From this page, you can type the service name into the search and get more specific details on the offering. Hope this helps.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/search/?terms=networking%20in%20azure
I've got an Azure app service that I'd like to use to run some software that requires licensing. The license is provided via a server on our internal network. The issue being finding a way to connect to this server.
The first option is to provide a fixed license that ties to the MAC address. However I don't think this will be possible from an app service, as it does not really have a MAC address? Can I provide a VNI to it and obtain a fixed MAC address that way?
What other options are there? Can the app service be tied to a VNET that can tunnel to the on-premises resource? Should I use a VM with a VNI instead of an app service? Any resources on these kind of problems would be appreciated.
I have used Azure Relay to connect my on-prem service with my app service. Not sure if you have already considered this option.
If your requirement is to establish a connection between your on-prem service and you app service, check out this https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-bus-relay/relay-what-is-it
Hope this helps
You could use VNet Integration with Azure App service and Azure VPN gateway to connect to on-premise resources. VNet Integration is used only to make outbound calls from your app into your VNet. There are Regional VNet Integration and Gateway-required VNet Integration.
How regional VNet Integration works
Regional VNet Integration works by mounting virtual interfaces with
addresses in the delegated subnet. Because the from address is in your
VNet, it can access most things in or through your VNet like a VM in
your VNet would. The networking implementation is different than
running a VM in your VNet. That's why some networking features aren't
yet available for this feature.
How gateway-required VNet Integration works
Gateway-required VNet Integration is built on top of point-to-site VPN
technology. Point-to-site VPNs limit network access to the virtual
machine that hosts the app. Apps are restricted to send traffic out to
the internet only through Hybrid Connections or through VNet
Integration. When your app is configured with the portal to use
gateway-required VNet Integration, a complex negotiation is managed on
your behalf to create and assign certificates on the gateway and the
application side. The result is that the workers used to host your
apps are able to directly connect to the virtual network gateway in
the selected VNet.
For more information, you could read this blog---How to Connect Azure Web Apps To On-Premises
In addition, If you need more control of the application deployment and less scale out or in than the Azure app service. You could host your application on the Azure VM, then set up a VPN gateway in that VNet where Azure VM locate, it allows access to the on-premise resources from your Azure VM as usual in the internal network.
this might be a dumb question.
is it possible to restrict the access to my Azure website http://sitename.cloudapp.net so that only the computers connected to my VPN will be able to access the site?
I use cloud services, and i have a vpn on my local computer(for now). the idea is(if possible), to have a connection between my vpn (which is local network) AND my cloudservice. Then allow the site access to only the computers within the vpn
You can set up a VPN and disable the public endpoints, so only machines within the VPN have access, but I think this is only available for VM's and Cloud Services - and not Windows Azure Websites. You don't say which you use.
"Windows Azure Virtual Network provides you with the capability
to extend your network into Windows Azure..."
Channel 9 offers some useful guides
Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks
We have a Virtual Network of VMs, storage accounts and websites hosted and working together in the Azure cloud.
Is it possible to connect my work/home PC to this Virtual Network using some VPN software?
Generally speaking two options exist, you can read about these here -
Windows Azure Connect let's you configure machine-to-machine VPN and is agent based
Configuring a private network let's you create a site-to-site VPN, but it typically requires a VPN appliance. I've seen posts on the internet about people managing to configure their router as the VPN gateway but, at least at this point, this is not easy nor supported.
Also worth reading is this overview of Windows Azure Networking features that covers both (and Traffic Manager) by David Chappel
have a look at using Azure Virtual Networks in conjunction with Azure Virtual Machines: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/services/networking/add-a-vm-to-a-virtual-network/