virtual network Archives - Apostolidis Cloud Corner

Network Policy for Private Endpoints

Pantelis Apostolidis — Tue, 17 May 2022 14:15:39 +0000

By setting the “Private endpoint network policy” to “Enabled” at the subnet where the Private Endpoint NIC resides, the /32 route of the Private Endpoint is getting invalid, even with a higher address range, like /24.

When using the portal to create a private endpoint, the PrivateEndpointNetworkPolicies setting is automatically disabled as part of the create process

Currently, this feature is in Public Preview, limited to some Azure Regions.

REF: Manage network policies for private endpoints – Azure Private Link | Microsoft Docs

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Network Policy for Private Endpoints appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 3

Pantelis Apostolidis — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 19:26:16 +0000

Designing the network routing, cloud & hybrid, on a Hyperscaler like Microsoft Azure can get a real pain. I got an idea, to start playing with some common scenarios and make some notes, in order to have it as a reference. I end up with three scenarios. Those scenarios are referring to internal network topology, without public access, and I focus more on the routing aspect, the DNS configuration & inspection through Azure Firewall.

At the previews posts, we covered the basics of routing traffic from/to on-premises, inspecting all traffic through Azure Firewall, and configuring the DNS for accessing the Private Endpoints. In this scenario, I am experimenting with connectivity between on-premises, the Hub & Spoke networks and a second level peered network (a network that is peered behind the Spoke network).

Recap of Scenario 1 & 2: We have a Hub network, two Spoke networks and an IPSec VPN connection with my on-premises network. We established routing all traffic through the Azure Firewall for inspection & configured DNS for accessing the Private Endpoint from on-premises & all Azure VNets.

In the third scenario, I am adding a new Spoke VNet, the “Azure 2” peered with my hub, and a third VNet, the “Azure 3” that is only peered with the “Azure 2” VNet. To enable connectivity between the “Azure 3” VNet and the rest of the networks, including the on-premises, we need a router at the “Azure 2” VNet. This can be an NVA or Azure Firewall. In my case, I added an Azure Firewall. The Azure Firewall of “Azure 2” VNet has the private IP: 192.168.200.64.

Azure 3 VNet, VM Subnet Route Table:
- 10.0.0.0/16 NH 192.168.200.68
- 192.168.0.0/20 NH 192.168.200.68
- 192.168.4.0/24 NH 192.168.200.68
- 192.168.5.0/24 NH 192.168.200.68
- 192.168.200.0/28 NH 192.168.200.68

Azure 2 VNet, AzureFirewallSubnet:
- 10.0.0.0/0 NH Internet
- 10.0.0.0/16 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.0.0/20 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.4.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.5.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4

Azure 2 VNet, VM Subnet:
- 10.0.0.0/16 NH 192.168.200.68
- 192.168.4.0/24 NH 192.168.200.68
- 192.168.5.0/24 NH 192.168.200.68
- 192.168.0.0/20 NH 192.168.200.68
- 10.100.0.0/16 NH 192.168.200.64

Azure Hub VNet, AzureFirewallSubet:
- 10.0.0.0/0 NH Internet
- 192.168.200.0/28 NH 192.168.200.68
- 10.100.0.0/16 NH 192.168.200.68
Azure Hub VNet, VM Subnet:
- 10.0.0.0/16 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.4.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.5.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.4.4/32 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.200.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 10.100.0.0/16 NH 192.168.2.4
Azure Hub VNet, GatewaySubnet:
- 192.168.0.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.4.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.5.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.4.4/32 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.200.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 10.100.0.0/16 NH 192.168.2.4
Spoke 2 VNet, VM Subnet:
- 10.0.0.0/16 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.4.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.0.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4
- 192.168.200.0/24 NH 192.168.2.4

Routing Example

Let’s describe a packet’s journey. The On-premises Server X (10.0.2.10) makes sends a packet to 10.100.0.4. 1st hop the packet goes to the default gateway, reaching the on-premises VPN device, in our case the RRAS. The RRAS has a custom route for 10.100.0.0/16 and forwards the packet to the VPN interface. The packet reaches the Azure VPN Gateway The Azure VPN Gateway has a custom route for 10.100.0.0/16 and forwards the packet to the HUB Azure Firewall, 192.168.2.4. The HUB Azure Firewall has a custom route for 10.100.0.0/16 and forwards the packet to the “Azure 2” Azure Firewall, 192.168.200.68. The “Azure 2” Azure Firewall does not have a custom route, but it has a route for 10.100.0.0/16 that is automatically populated by the VNet peering. The Azure FIrewall knows to forward the packet through the VNet peering and reaches the destination.

You can find more commends and tests in the below diagram with the whole solution.

Diagram: (Click here to download a high-resolution SVG image)

References:
Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 1 – Apostolidis Cloud Corner
Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 2 – Apostolidis Cloud Corner
Use Azure Firewall to inspect traffic destined to a private endpoint – Azure Private Link | Microsoft Docs
Azure Private Endpoint DNS configuration | Microsoft Docs
What is a virtual network link subresource of Azure DNS private zones | Microsoft Docs
Azure Firewall DNS Proxy details | Microsoft Docs
Create, change, or delete an Azure route table | Microsoft Docs

Pantelis Apostolidis

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 3 appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 2

Pantelis Apostolidis — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 19:13:24 +0000

This scenario shares the same topology as Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 1 with some changes in order to route all traffic through the Azure Firewall. This will allow us to have full control & inspection of all traffic from/to on-premises and all Azure traffic from/to all VNets. To achieve this we need some Route Table configuration.

At first, to control the traffic from the on-premises network, we need to add a Route Table to the GatewaySubnet to route all traffic through the Azure Firewall. 192.168.0.0/24, 192.168.4.0/24 & 192.168.5.0/24 Next Hop: 192.168.2.4. Now if we try to access the Storage Account, we will realize that we are still going directly from the VPN Gateway to the Storage account, (10.0.1.4 -> AzureGW -> 192.168.4.4). This happens because the Private Endpoint services populate a /32 route to the VNet and all peered VNets. The effective routes of the VPN Gateway now have our custom 192.168.4.0/24 -> 192.168.2.4 route but they also have the 192.168.4.4/32 -> Virtual Network route that is created by the Private Endpoint Service. Since it is a more specific route, it takes priority. The only way to bypass this in a hybrid scenario like this is to create a /32 route “192.168.4.4/32 Next Hop 192.168.2.4”. You can check more scenarios here. Now the GatewaySubnet Route Table is:
192.168.0.0/24 Next Hop 192.168.2.4
192.168.4.0/24 Next Hop 192.168.2.4
192.168.5.0/24 Next Hop 192.168.2.4
192.168.4.4/32 Next Hop 192.168.2.4

After this Route Table is applied to the GatewaySubnet, we can inspect the traffic coming from on-premises through the Azure Firewall logs. The /32 Route for the Private Endpoint must be applied to all Route Tables that are on VNets that are directly peered with the Private Endpoint VNet. I also added the /32 route to the VMSubnet. The Spoke2 subnet does NOT need to have the /32 route, since it is not directly peered with the Private Endpoint VNet. To access the Private Endpoint we added the /32 route to all Hub VNets, the GatewaySubnet, and the VMs subnet. The /32 route is not needed only services at the Spoke2 subnet, that is not directly peered with the Spoke1 subnet that has the Private Endpoint. And this is why the /32 route is created together with the Private Endpoint and it is populated to all peered subnets.

About the DNS configuration, as discussed in Scenario 1, to access Azure PaaS services, like the Storage, the Azure SQL, the Web App, we need to use the URI, since they don’t listen to the IP. Since we have Azure Firewall at the configuration, and I have enabled the Azure Firewall DNS Proxy feature to use it as a Conditional Forwarder for the on-premises DNS, we can also use it for the Azure estate. I changed the DNS of the Spoke2 VNet to the Azure Firewall, 192.168.2.4 to be able to resolve the Storage account’s Private IP. Linking all Private DNS zones to Azure Firewall’s VNet, usually the Hub VNet, we can use Azure Firewall as our DNS server to all VNets.

DNS & Routing example

DNS: The on-premises Server X, 10.0.2.10, makes a request to https://azappsa.blob.core.windows.net. At first, it asks the DNS to resolve the URL to an IP. The DNS has a conditional forwarder about blob.core.windows.net, and asks the Azure Firewall, 192.168.2.4. Azure Firewall has a linked Private DNS zone that has a host record for azappsa.blob.core.windows.net and it resolves to 192.168.4.4. This information routes back to Server X. Now Server X knows that the IP address of azappsa.blob.core.windows.net is 192.168.4.4.

Routing: To go to 192.168.4.4 first it asks its Default Gateway, in our case the RRAS. The RRAS has a custom route for 192.168.0.0/16 and forwards the packet to the VPN interface. The packet reaches the Azure VPN Gateway. The Azure VPN Gateway has a custom route for 192.168.4.4/32 and sends the packet to the Azure Firewall, 192.168.2.4. The Azure Firewall does not have a custom route, but it has a route that is automatically populated by the VNet peering with address 192.168.4.4/32. The Azure Firewall knows to forward the packet through the VNet peering and reaches the destination.

You can find more commends and test at the diagram below:

References:
Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 1 – Apostolidis Cloud Corner
Use Azure Firewall to inspect traffic destined to a private endpoint – Azure Private Link | Microsoft Docs
Azure Private Endpoint DNS configuration | Microsoft Docs
What is a virtual network link subresource of Azure DNS private zones | Microsoft Docs
Azure Firewall DNS Proxy details | Microsoft Docs
Create, change, or delete an Azure route table | Microsoft Docs

Pantelis Apostolidis

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 2 appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 1

Pantelis Apostolidis — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 18:41:14 +0000

Scenario 1: Hybrid connectivity through Azure VPN gateway

At the start, I created the on-premises network, using a RRAS (Windows Server 2019 with Routing & Remote Access) to act as the router/VPN device and a Server with DNS service. The Azure estate has three VNets, in a hub & spoke topology. One HUB and two Spokes, connected with the HUB with VNet peering. There is no peering between the spokes. My Azure HUB network has three subnets, one has a VPN Gateway, the second has a VM, and the third has an Azure Firewall. In this first scenario, the Azure Firewall acts only as a DNS Proxy. It is not included in routing.

On-premises network: 10.0.0.0/16
HUB VNet Address Space: 192.168.0.0/22
HUB GatewaySubnet: 192.168.1.0/24
HUB VMSubnet: 192.168.0.0/24
HUB Firewall Subnet: 192.168.2.0/24
Spoke1 (storage account): 192.168.4.0/24
Spoke2 (VM): 192.168.5.0/24

The first spoke has a Private Link to my storage account. The second spoke has a VM.. Azure VPN Gateway knows all routes of its VNet, the peered VNets & the routes propagated from the VPN connection. From on-premises, we can reach all resources using the VPN connection interface ( in RRAS I added a custom route “192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 interface:AzureGW”)

From the VM of the HUB VNet (192.168.0.4), in order to be able to reach the on-premises network, we need a custom route, since the on-premises network is not populated to the VNet. I created a Route Table, with route “10.0.0.0/16 Next Hop: Virtual Network Gateway” attached to the VM Subnet.

To access the Private Endpoint of the Storage account we need some more resources & configuration. The storage account, as all PaaS services (like Web App & Azure SQL) responds only to URI and not to IP. Since we have connected a Private Endpoint to the Storage Account, the Public Access is blocked. So, in order to connect to the storage account, we need the aprostore.file.core.windows.net to translate to the private IP of the storage account, the 192.168.4.4. The proper way to achieve this is by using DNS.

First, we need to create a Private DNS zone and link it to the HUB VNET. For accessing blob storage we need a Private DNS zone with the name privatelink.blob.core.windows.net, for the file we need privatelink.file.core.windows.net. More services here. Then add the Storage Account Private Endpoint record to the Private DNS Zone. Now there is an A record azappsa with IP 192.168.4.4. Now, all Azure resources at the linked VNet, the HUB, are able to resolve the DNS records of the Private DNS Zone. We cannot resolve the records of the Azure Private DNS Zone from on-premises. To do so, we need a DNS server on Azure, to use as a conditional forwarder. This can be a Windows or Linux VM with DNS services or in my case, the Azure FIrewall with the DNS proxy enabled (I will use the whole functionality of the firewall to my next scenarios). I enabled the DNS Proxy on Azure, using default Azure DNS, and I added a conditional forwarding at the on-premises DNS “blob.core.windows.net -> 192.168.2.4” and “file.core.windows.net -> 192.168.2.44”. Now, I can successfully resolve the private IP of the storage account using its name, and be able to connect to it to both blob and to files with SMB access.

From the VM of the Spoke2 VNet (192.168.5.4), in order to be able to reach the on-premises network, we need a custom route, since the on-premises network is not populated to the VNet. I created a Route Table, with route “10.0.0.0/16 Next Hop: Virtual Network Gateway” attached to the VM Subnet. I added a second route “192.168.4.0/24 Next Hop: Virtual Network Gateway” & changed the VNet DNS to 192.168.2.4 (the Azure Firewall) to be able to access the Spoke1 VNet for storage access.

DNS & Routing example

Routing: To go to 192.168.4.4 first it asks its Default Gateway, in our case the RRAS. The RRAS has a custom route for 192.168.0.0/16 and forwards the packet to the VPN interface. The packet reaches the Azure VPN Gateway. The Azure VPN Gateway has a custom route for 192.168.0.0/24 BUT it also has a route for 192.168.4.4/32 that is automatically populated by the VNet peering. The /32 route is more specific than the /24 route, so the VPN Gateway forwards the packet directly to the Private Endpoint, bypassing the Azure Firewall. (At the Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 2 we will see how we will force the traffic through the Azure Firewall.

Please find below the whole solution diagram, I tried to make it as analytic as possible, without messing with too many lines. Also, I have some notes and tests below.

References:
Azure Private Endpoint DNS configuration | Microsoft Docs
What is a virtual network link subresource of Azure DNS private zones | Microsoft Docs
Azure Firewall DNS Proxy details | Microsoft Docs
Create, change, or delete an Azure route table | Microsoft Docs

Pantelis Apostolidis

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure Routing Experiences | Scenario 1 appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Infrastructure as Code | Deploy a VNET & NSG & UDR

Pantelis Apostolidis — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 22:45:35 +0000

Infrastructure as Code | Deploy a VNET with NSG and UDRs

Infrastructure as Code, or just IaC, provides three three main advantages: cost reduction, faster execution and risk reduction, the attributes of the DevOps culture.

Microsoft Azure Resource Manager allows the managing and provisioning of Azure Resources, that can be Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks, Storage Accounts, Apps, SQL Databases and everything that a computer data center includes, through machine-readable definition files, known as JSON templates, without the need of physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools.

I am starting a series of posts about building infrastructure with JSON templates.

The tool I use to build my Azure Json templates is the Visual Studio Code. You can download it from https://code.visualstudio.com/ for every platform.

To work with Azure Resource Manager you need the Azure Resource Manager Tools extension. Open the VS Code, go to the Extensions Section, search and install the Azure Resource Manager Tools extension.

The extension is very helpful since it highlights the code, it provides references and intellisense.

At this post I am sharing & explaining my Azure json template for deploying a Virtual Network, a Network Security Group and a Route Table.

You can find and download my working template at my Git account :

https://github.com/proximagr/ARMTemplates/tree/master/VNET-2sub-NSG-UDR

Json Template Guide

Below you can find my template with comments, for better understanding.

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
//** Define the Virtual Network Name */
    "vnetName": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "Cloud-Corner-VNET",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Cloud Corner VNET"
      }
//** Define the Address Space of the Virtual Network */
    },
      "vnetAddressPrefix": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "10.0.0.0/24",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Address prefix"
        }
//** Define the Address Space of the the First Subnet */
      },
      "subnet1Prefix": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "10.0.0.0/27",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Subnet 1 Prefix"
        }
//** Define the Name of the the First Subnet */
      },
      "subnet1Name": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "Subnet1",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Subnet 1 Name"
        }
//** Define the Address Space of the the Second Subnet */
      },
      "subnet2Prefix": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "10.0.0.32/27",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Subnet 2 Prefix"
        }
//** Define the Name of the the First Subnet */
      },
      "subnet2Name": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "Subnet2",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Subnet 2 Name"
        }
      },
//** Define the Name of the the Network Security Group */
      "networkSecurityGroup01Name": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "Cloud-Corner-NSG-01",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "This is the name of the network security group"
        }
      },
//** Define the Name of the the First Route Table */
      "RouteTable01Name": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "Cloud-Corner-UDR-01",
        "metadata": {
        "description": "Route Table 01 Name."
        }
      },
//** Define the Name of the the First Route of the First Route Table */
      "Route01Name": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "To-internet",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Route 01 Name."
        }
      },
//** Define the Next Hop Type of the the First Route of the First Route Table */
      "Route01NextHopType": {
        "type": "string",
        "allowedValues": [
        "VirtualNetworkGateway",
        "VnetLocal",
        "Internet",
        "VirtualAppliance",
        "None"
      ],
      "defaultValue": "VirtualAppliance",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Route 01 Next Hop Type."
        }
      },
//** Define the Address Prefix of the First Route of the First Route Table */
      "Route01AddressPrefix": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "0.0.0.0/0",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Route 01 Address Prefix."
        }
      },
//** If you set "Virtyal Appliance for Next Hop Type, then you need to define the Next Hop IP Address, */
//** meaning the appliance's IP address. Here you define it for the First Route of the First Route Table */
        "RT01Route01NextHopIPAddress": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "10.0.0.40",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Next Hop IP Addess."
        }
      },
//** Define the Name of the Second Route Table */
      "RouteTable02Name": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "Cloud-Corner-UDR-02",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Route Table 02 Name."
        }
      },
//** Define the Name of the the First Route of the Second Route Table */
      "RT02Route01Name": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "Local-Subnet",
        "metadata": {
        "description": "Route Table 02 Route 01 Name."
        }
      },
//** Define the Next Hop Type of the the First Route of the Second Route Table */
      "RT02Route01NextHopType": {
        "type": "string",
        "allowedValues": [
        "VirtualNetworkGateway",
        "VnetLocal",
        "Internet",
        "VirtualAppliance",
        "None"
      ],
      "defaultValue": "VnetLocal",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Route 02 Next Hop Type."
        }
      },
//** Define the Address Prefix of the the First Route of the Second Route Table */
      "RT02Route01AddressPrefix": {
        "type": "string",
        "defaultValue": "10.0.0.0/27",
        "metadata": {
          "description": "Route Table 02 Route 01 Address Prefix."
        }
      },
//** Define the Name of the the Second Route of the Second Route Table */
        "RT02Route02Name": {
          "type": "string",
          "defaultValue": "To-subnet-1",
          "metadata": {
            "description": "Route Table 02 Route 01 Name."
          }
        },
//** Define the Next Hop Type of the the Second Route of the Second Route Table */
        "RT02Route02NextHopType": {
          "type": "string",
          "allowedValues": [
          "VirtualNetworkGateway",
          "VnetLocal",
          "Internet",
          "VirtualAppliance",
          "None"
        ],
        "defaultValue": "VirtualAppliance",
          "metadata": {
            "description": "Route 02 Next Hop Type."
          }
        },
//** Define the address prefix of the the Second Route of the Second Route Table */
        "RT02Route02AddressPrefix": {
          "type": "string",
          "defaultValue": "10.0.0.32/27",
          "metadata": {
            "description": "Route Table 02 Route 01 Address Prefix."
          }
      },
//** Define the next hop IP address (the virtual appliance's address) of the the Second Route of the Second Route Table */
        "RT02Route02NextHopIPAddress": {
          "type": "string",
          "defaultValue": "10.0.0.40",
          "metadata": {
            "description": "Next Hop IP Addess."
          }
        }
    },
//** I dont use any variables, you can exclude this section*/
  "variables": {},
  "resources": [
//* create the First Route Table & Route*/
    {
    "apiVersion": "2017-10-01",
    "type": "Microsoft.Network/routeTables",
    "name": "[parameters('RouteTable01Name')]",
    "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
    "properties": {
    "disableBgpRoutePropagation": true,
    "routes": [
      {
        "name": "[parameters('Route01Name')]",
        "properties": {
          "addressPrefix": "[parameters('Route01AddressPrefix')]",
          "nextHopType": "[parameters('Route01NextHopType')]",
          "nextHopIpAddress": "[parameters('RT01Route01NextHopIPAddress')]"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  },
//* create the Second Route Table & Routes*/
    {
    "apiVersion": "2017-10-01",
    "type": "Microsoft.Network/routeTables",
    "name": "[parameters('RouteTable02Name')]",
    "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
    "properties": {
    "disableBgpRoutePropagation": true,
    "routes": [
      {
        "name": "[parameters('RT02Route01Name')]",
        "properties": {
          "addressPrefix": "[parameters('RT02Route01AddressPrefix')]",
          "nextHopType": "[parameters('RT02Route01NextHopType')]"
        }
      },
          {
        "name": "[parameters('RT02Route02Name')]",
        "properties": {
          "addressPrefix": "[parameters('RT02Route02AddressPrefix')]",
          "nextHopType": "[parameters('RT02Route02NextHopType')]",
          "nextHopIpAddress": "[parameters('RT02Route02NextHopIPAddress')]"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  },
//* create teh Network Security Group */
    {
    "apiVersion": "2019-02-01",
    "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups",
    "name": "[parameters('networkSecurityGroup01Name')]",
    "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
    "properties": {
      "securityRules": [
        {
          "name": "HTTPS",
          "properties": {
            "description": "Open HTTPS to Public",
            "protocol": "Tcp",
            "sourcePortRange": "443",
            "destinationPortRange": "443",
            "sourceAddressPrefix": "*",
            "destinationAddressPrefix": "*",
            "access": "Allow",
            "priority": 101,
            "direction": "Inbound"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
//* create the Virtual Network */
    {
      "apiVersion": "2018-10-01",
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks",
      "name": "[parameters('vnetName')]",
      "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
//*add a dependency in order to ensure that the NSG is created before the VNET, in order to be able to attach it*/
      "dependsOn": [
        "[parameters('networkSecurityGroup01Name')]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "AddressSpace": {
          "AddressPrefixes": [
            "[parameters('vnetAddressPrefix')]"
          ]
        }
      },
      "resources": [
//* create the first subnet */
        {
        "apiVersion": "2018-10-01",
        "type": "subnets",
        "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
        "name": "[parameters('subnet1Name')]",
//* add dependencies to create the resources with an order, because you need to ensure that the VNET is ready before creating the Subnet and also the Route Table*/
        "dependsOn": [
          "[parameters('vnetName')]",
          "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/routeTables', parameters('RouteTable01Name'))]"
        ],
        "properties": {
        "AddressPrefix": "[parameters('subnet1Prefix')]",
//*attach the Newtork Securoty Group to the Subnet*/
        "networkSecurityGroup": {
        "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups', parameters('networkSecurityGroup01Name'))]"},
//*attacht the First route table to the Subnet*/
        "routeTable": {
        "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/routeTables', parameters('RouteTable01Name'))]"
          }
         }
        },
//*create the second subnet*/
        {
        "apiVersion": "2018-10-01",
        "type": "subnets",
        "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
        "name": "[parameters('subnet2Name')]",
        "dependsOn": [
          "[parameters('vnetName')]",
          "[parameters('subnet1Name')]",
          "[parameters('RouteTable02Name')]"
        ],
        "properties": {
          "AddressPrefix": "[parameters('subnet2Prefix')]",
//*attach the Newtork Securoty Group to the Subnet*/
          "networkSecurityGroup": {
          "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups', parameters('networkSecurityGroup01Name'))]"},
//*attacht the second route table to the Subnet*/
          "routeTable": {
          "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/routeTables', parameters('RouteTable02Name'))]"
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Deploy the template

Deploy the template directly from here:

More Azure Resource Manager Templates: https://www.e-apostolidis.gr/microsoft/azure/create-azure-file-shares-using-arm-template-powershell/

Pantelis Apostolidis

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Infrastructure as Code | Deploy a VNET & NSG & UDR appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Create an Ultra High Available on-prem Azure VPN Connection

Pantelis Apostolidis — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 09:00:47 +0000

Create an Ultra High Available on-prem <-> Azure VPN Connection

At this post we will see how to make a high available connection between our on-premises network and Azure. This way we will have an Active-Active Dual-Redundancy VPN Connection.

The idea behind this is that we have a router/firewall cluster,connected with two ISPs and we want to also have a VPN connection with Azure using both ISPs actively. I call this an end-to-end high available connectivity between our on-premises infrastructure and Azure. Actually the active-active dual redundant connections needs to have two different on-premises VPN devices, but we can accomplish almost the same functionality with one device and two different interfaces with two different ISPs.

The requirement for this topology, except the router/firewall cluster and the two ISPs is that the Azure VPN Gateway must be Standard or HighPerformance SKU. The Basic SKU does not support Active-Active mode.

As you can see at the above diagram, the Active-Active VPN Gateway created two Active VPN Nodes. The connection of each node to each on-premises network interface in a mesh topology. All network traffic is distributed through all the connections. In order to accomplish this connectivity we need to also enable BGP to both on-premises device and Azure VPN Gateway with different ASN.

Lets lab it:

Create a Virtual Network Gateway, VPN, Route Based and SKU VpnGw1 or larger

Enable active-active mode, this will create two nodes, and give the names of the two Public IPs.

Check the Configure BGB ASN and change the default ASN, I used 65510

wait a lot… more than the typical 45 minutes, a lot more…

When the gateway is created you will see that the public ip address is called “First public IP address”. If you click the “see more” link you will see the second IP too.

You can see both IP form the Properties page too.

Second we need to create two Local network Gateways, to represent the two interfaces of our on-premises device. Both must be created with the same ASN. This ASM must be different than the Gateways’ and this ASN must be configured at the configuration of the local devices VPN connection.

]

Now, create the connection

And remember to enable BGP at the Connection’s Configuration

As soon as the local device is configured both connections became connected.

From powershell we can see both local IPs of the two nodes of the Azure VPN Gateway,

Test and Troubleshooting

Currently the only way to see the connections between the Azure Gateway Nodes and the local devices interfaces is the below powershell command

Get-AzureRmVirtualNetworkGatewayBGpPeerStatus -VirtualNetworkGatewayName “gatewayname” -ResourceGroup “resourcegroupname”

Every time you run this command you get answer from one of the two nodes at random. At the above screenshot, first is one node and second is the other.

The first node’s peer, 192.168.xx.9 shows that is connected to the 10.xx.xx.2 local network’s peer and connecting at the second peer 10.xx.xx.1

The second node’s peer, 192.168.xx.8 shows that is connected to the 10.xx.xx.1 local network’s peer and connecting at the second peer 10.xx.xx.2

The test I performed was to unplug one interface from the local device. The azure gateway’s first node State was both Connecting and the second node was the same, connecting to .2 and connected to .1. At this test I did lost a single ping.

After that I plugged the cable back, waited less than a minute and unplugged the second cable. Now the first node shows still disconnected but the first node connected to the .2 local IP and connecting to .1. With this test I lost only one ping. Also I realized that it is random which node’s private IP will connect with the local device’s private IP. Both Azure Gateway’s IPs 192.168.x.8 & 9 can connect with the local device’s IP 10.x.x.1 & 2 and this is the magic of the Active-Active Dual Redundancy VPN connection.

Pantelis Apostolidis

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Create an Ultra High Available on-prem <-> Azure VPN Connection appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Connect two or more Azure Virtual Networks using one VPN Gateway

Pantelis Apostolidis — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 18:52:52 +0000

Connect two or more Azure Virtual Networks using one VPN Gateway

Peering is a feature that allows to connect two or more virtual networks and act as one bigger network. At this post we will see how we can connect two Azure Virtual Networks, using peering and access the whole network using one VPN Gateway. We can connect Virtual Networks despite if they are in the same Subscription or not.

I have created a diagram to help understand the topology.

We have a Virtual Network with Site-2-Site VPN wto On Premises. It can also have Point-2-Site connection configured. The VNET A.
We have another Virtual Network at the Same Subscription that we want to connect each other. The VNET B.
Also we can have a third Virtual Network at a different subscription. The VNET C.

In sort we need those peerings with the specific settings:

At the VNETA Peering VNETA to VNETB with “Allow Gateway transit”
At the VNETA Peering VNETA to VNET
At the VNETB Peering VNETB to VNETA with “Use Remote Gateway”
At the VNETB Peering VNETB to VNETC
At the VNETC Peering VNETC to VNETA with “Use Remote Gateway”
At the VNETC Peering VNETC to VNETB

In order to be able to connect all those networks and also access them using the VPN Connection there are four requirements:

The account that will be used to create the peering must have the “Network Contributor” Role.
The Address Space must be different on each other and not overlap.
All other Virtual Networks, except the one that has the VPN Connection must NOT have a VPN Gateway deployed.
Of course at the local VPN device (router) we need to add the address spaces of all the Virtual Networks that we need to access.

Lets lab it:

HQ 192.168.0.0/16 –> The on-premises network
VNET A 10.1.0.0/16 –> The Virtual Network that has the VPN Gateway (At my lab is named “devvn”)
VNET B 10.229.128.0/24 –> THe virtual network at a different subscription of the Gateway (At my lab is named “Network prtg-rsg-vnet”)
VNET C 172.16.1.0/24 –> The virtual network at the same subscription as the Gateway Network (At my lab is named “provsevnet)

The on-premises network is connected with Site-to-site (IPsec) VPN to the VNETA

Now we need to connect VNETA and VNETB using Vnet Peering. in order to have a Peering connection we need to create a connection from VNETA to VNETB and one from VNETB to VNETA.

Open the VNETA Virtual Network, go to the Peerings setting and press +ADD

Select the VNETB and check the “Allow Gateway transit” to allow the peer virtual network to use your virtual network gateway

Then go to the VNETB, go to the Peerings setting and click +ADD.

Select the VNETA Virtual Network and check the “Use Remote Gateway” to use the peer’s virtual network gateway. This way the VNETB will use the VNETA’s Gateway.

Now we can contact the VNETB network from our on-premises network

a multi-ping screenshot:

From 10.229.128.5 (VNETB) to 192.168.0.4 (on-premises) & the opposite
From 10..1.2.4 (VNETA) to 10.229.128.5 (VNETB) & to 192.168.0.4 (on-premises)

The next step is to create a cross-subscription peering VNETA with VNETC

Open the VNETA and create a peering by selecting the VNETC from the other Subscription and check the “allow gateway transit”

Then go to the VNETC and create a peer with the VNETA and check the “use remote gaeway”

With the two above connections we have connectivity between the on-premises network and the VNETC.

The final step, to enable the connectivity between VNETB & VNETC. To accomplish this just create one peer from the VNETB to VNETC and one from VNETC to VNETB.

Ping inception:

In order to have client VPN connectivity to the whole network, create a Point-2-Site VPN at the VNETA. You can follow this guide: Azure Start Point | Point-to-Site VPN

Pantelis Apostolidis

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Connect two or more Azure Virtual Networks using one VPN Gateway appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Application Security Groups to simplify your Azure VMs network security

Pantelis Apostolidis — Sat, 25 Aug 2018 13:50:21 +0000

Application Security Groups to simplify your Azure VMs network security

Application Security Groups helps to manage the security of the Azure Virtual Machines by grouping them according the applications that runs on them. It is a feature that allows the application-centric use of Network Security Groups.

An example is always the best way to better understand a feature. So let’s say that in a Subnet we have some Web Servers and some Database Servers. The access rules of the Subnet’s Network Security Group to allow http, https & database access to those servers will be something like this:

Using only the Network Security Groups functionality we need to add the IP addresses of the servers to use them to the access lists. There are two major difficulties here:

For every rule we need to add all the IPs of the servers that will be included.
If there is an IP address change (e.g by adding or removing a server) then all the relative rules must change.

Use Application Security Groups

Now, lets see how we can bypass this complexity by using Application Security Groups, combined with Network Security Groups.

Create two Application Security Groups, one for the Web Servers and one for the Database Servers

At the Azure Portal, search for Application Security Groups

Provide a name and a Resource Group

Create one more with name Database Servers and at the Resource Group you will have those two Application Security Groups:

Then go each Virtual Machine and attach the relevant ASG.

Click the Virtual Machine and then go to the Networking settings blade, and press the “Configure the application security groups”

Select the relevant ASG and press save:

Do the same for all your servers. Finally open the Network Security Group. Open the https rule, at my example is the “https2WebServers” rule. Change the Destination to “Application Security Group” and for Destination application security group select the Web Servers.

Same way change the database access rule and for Source add the “Database Server” ASG and for destination the “Web Servers” ASG. Now the NSG will look like this:

Now on when removing a VM from the Web Servers farm of the Database servers cluster there is no need to change anything at the NSG. When adding a new VM, the only thing we need to do is to attach the VM to the relative Application Security Group.

A Virtual Machine can be attached to more than one Application Security Group. This helps in cases of multi-application servers.

There are only two requirements:

All network interfaces used in an ASG must be within the same VNet
If ASGs are used in the source and destination, they must be within the same VNet

Pantelis Apostolidis

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Application Security Groups to simplify your Azure VMs network security appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Ασφαλίστε την Azure MySQL και PostgreSQL με τη χρήση Service Endpoints

Pantelis Apostolidis — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 10:40:32 +0000

Ασφαλίστε την MySQL και την PostgreSQL με τη χρήση Service Endpoints

Σε προηγούμενο post, Ασφάλισε την Azure SQL Database μέσα σε ένα VNET χρησιμοποιώντας service endpoints, είδαμε πως μπορούμε να χρησιμοποιήσουμε τα Service Endpoints του Azure Virtual Network για να ασφαλίσουμε μια Azure SQL για πρόσβαση μόνο από εσωτερικό δίκτυο.

Σήμερα, το Microsoft Azure, ανακοίνωσε την γενική διαθεσιμότητα του Service Endpoints για MySQL και PostgreSQL. Αυτό δίνει την δυνατότητα να κόψουμε όλη την Public πρόσβαση στις MySQL & PostgreSQL και να επιτρέψουμε μόνο πρόσβαση απο το εσωτερικό μας δίκτυο. Φυσικά μπορεί να οριστεί συγκεκριμένο Subnet ή Subnets. Επίσης δεν υπαρχει επιπλέων χρέωση για την χρήση των Service Endpoint.

Περισσότερα μπορείτε να δείτε στο Microsoft Azure Blog: Announcing VNet service endpoints general availability for MySQL and PostgreSQL

Pantelis Apostolidis

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Ασφαλίστε την Azure MySQL και PostgreSQL με τη χρήση Service Endpoints appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Azure Start Point | Point-to-Site VPN

Pantelis Apostolidis — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 21:08:36 +0000

Azure Start Point | Point-to-Site VPN

In this post series we will go through some basic steps on how to start with Microsoft Azure. At this post we will see how we can create Point-to-Site VPN connection with Azure.

If you don’t have an Azure Subscription, you can easily create a free trial by just going to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/

Create typical a VIrtual Network

In order to create Point-to-Site VPN connection it needs a Virtual Network Gateway. Go to the Virtual Network, Subnets and add a Gateway Subnet.

FInally we can add the Virtual Network Gateway. From the portal, create a Virtual Network Gateway resource and add it to the previously created Virtual Network.

The Virtual Network Gateway can take up to 45 minutes to be created.

Once the Virtual Network Gateway is created we need one more step. To configure Point-to-site. Open the Virtual Network Gateway and press configure.

We will need a root and a client self-signed certificate to complete the setup. Using a WIndows 10 or Windows Server 2016 machine we can make use of the New-SelfSignedCertificate cmdlet that makes the process easy. The whole process is described here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-certificates-point-to-site

For the root certificate run the below PowerShell using ISE:

$cert = New-SelfSignedCertificate -Type Custom -KeySpec Signature `
-Subject "CN=prodevrootcert" -KeyExportPolicy Exportable `
-HashAlgorithm sha256 -KeyLength 2048 `
-CertStoreLocation "Cert:\CurrentUser\My" -KeyUsageProperty Sign -KeyUsage CertSign

For the client certificate run the below PowerShell using ISE:

New-SelfSignedCertificate -Type Custom -DnsName ProDevChildCert -KeySpec Signature `
-Subject "CN=ProDevChildCert" -KeyExportPolicy Exportable `
-HashAlgorithm sha256 -KeyLength 2048 `
-CertStoreLocation "Cert:\CurrentUser\My" `
-Signer $cert -TextExtension @("2.5.29.37={text}1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.2")

Export the root certificate in cer format using MMC, open the Certificates snap-in and select “current user”. Find the root certificate under Personal –> Certificates and right click –> All Tasks export

Select to “not export the private key” and use Base64 encoded.

Now you have the prodevrootcert.cer

After that, export the client certificate by selecting “export the private key” , select the “include all certificates in the certification path” and the “enable certificate privacy”. Add a password and export it to pfx file.

Now you have the prodevchildcert.pfx. This pfx file must be installed to all the client computers that will use this Point-to-Site connection.

Now lets go back to the Point-to-Site configuration page. Add an address pool that the VPN clients will use. This subnet must be different from the Virtual Network address space.

Then open the root certificate, the cer file, using notepad, copy the text between the Begin and End marks.

Paste the certificate text to the “Root certificated” –> Public certificate data” field and add a name to the “Name” field.

Press Save and the “Download VPN Client” button will be enabled and we can download the VPN client.

In order to establish the VPN connection we need to install the VPN Client and the Client “pfx” certificate to the workstation.

Pantelis Apostolidis

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure Start Point | Point-to-Site VPN appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.