Azure Virtual Private Networks

A virtual private network (VPN) uses an encrypted tunnel within another network. VPNs are typically deployed to connect two or more trusted private networks to one another over an untrusted network (typically the public internet). Traffic is encrypted while traveling over the untrusted network to prevent eavesdropping or other attacks. VPNs can enable networks to safely and securely share sensitive information.

VPN gateways

A VPN gateway is a type of virtual network gateway. Azure VPN Gateway instances are deployed in a dedicated subnet of the virtual network and enable the following connectivity:

• Connect on-premises datacenters to virtual networks through a site-to-site connection.

• Connect individual devices to virtual networks through a point-to-site connection.

• Connect virtual networks to other virtual networks through a network-to-network connection.

All data transfer is encrypted inside a private tunnel as it crosses the internet. You can deploy only one VPN gateway in each virtual network. However, you can use one gateway to connect to multiple locations, which includes other virtual networks or on-premises datacenters.

When you deploy a VPN gateway, you specify the VPN type: either policy-based or route-based. The main difference between these two types of VPNs is how traffic to be encrypted is specified. In Azure, both types of VPN gateways use a pre-shared key as the only method of authentication.

• Policy-based VPN gateways specify statically the IP address of packets that should be encrypted through each tunnel. This type of device evaluates every data packet against those sets of IP addresses to choose the tunnel where that packet is going to be sent through.

• In Route-based gateways, IPSec tunnels are modeled as a network interface or virtual tunnel interface. IP routing (either static routes or dynamic routing protocols) decides which one of these tunnel interfaces to use when sending each packet. Route-based VPNs are the preferred connection method for on-premises devices. They're more resilient to topology changes such as the creation of new subnets.

Use a route-based VPN gateway if you need any of the following types of connectivity:

• Connections between virtual networks

• Point-to-site connections

• Multisite connections

• Coexistence with an Azure ExpressRoute gateway

High-availability scenarios

If you’re configuring a VPN to keep your information safe, you also want to be sure that it’s a highly available and fault tolerant VPN configuration. There are a few ways to maximize the resiliency of your VPN gateway.

Active/standby

By default, VPN gateways are deployed as two instances in an active/standby configuration, even if you only see one VPN gateway resource in Azure. When planned maintenance or unplanned disruption affects the active instance, the standby instance automatically assumes responsibility for connections without any user intervention. Connections are interrupted during this failover, but they're typically restored within a few seconds for planned maintenance and within 90 seconds for unplanned disruptions.

Active/active

With the introduction of support for the BGP routing protocol, you can also deploy VPN gateways in an active/active configuration. In this configuration, you assign a unique public IP address to each instance. You then create separate tunnels from the on-premises device to each IP address. You can extend the high availability by deploying an additional VPN device on-premises.

ExpressRoute failover

Another high-availability option is to configure a VPN gateway as a secure failover path for ExpressRoute connections. ExpressRoute circuits have resiliency built in. However, they aren't immune to physical problems that affect the cables delivering connectivity or outages that affect the complete ExpressRoute location. In high-availability scenarios, where there's risk associated with an outage of an ExpressRoute circuit, you can also provision a VPN gateway that uses the internet as an alternative method of connectivity. In this way, you can ensure there's always a connection to the virtual networks.

Zone-redundant gateways

In regions that support availability zones, VPN gateways and ExpressRoute gateways can be deployed in a zone-redundant configuration. This configuration brings resiliency, scalability, and higher availability to virtual network gateways. Deploying gateways in Azure availability zones physically and logically separates gateways within a region while protecting your on-premises network connectivity to Azure from zone-level failures. These gateways require different gateway stock keeping units (SKUs) and use Standard public IP addresses instead of Basic public IP addresses.