In this tutorial, I will be guiding you on how to set up a virtual network peering in Azure. Why do we need to set up the virtual network peering? When we have different virtual networks with resources in each network and we need the resources in those different networks to communicate with each other over a low-latency, high-bandwidth connection using the Microsoft backbone network. When we are done creating the virtual network peering it will enable us to connect two or more Virtual Networks in Azure and the resources in those networks will communicate with each other. What is Azure Virtual Network? Azure Virtual Network is the fundamental building block for your private network in Azure. A virtual network enables many types of Azure resources, such as Azure Virtual Machines (VM), to securely communicate with each other, the internet, and on-premises networks. A virtual network is similar to a traditional network that you’d operate in your own data center. An Azure Virtual Network brings with it extra benefits of Azure’s infrastructure such as scale, availability, and isolation. Virtual Network Peering? Virtual network peering links virtual networks, enabling you to route traffic between them using private IP addresses. Ingress and egress traffic is charged at both ends of the peered networks. Supported Peering in Azure; Virtual network peering: Connecting virtual networks within the same Azure region. Global virtual network peering: Connecting virtual networks across Azure regions. Build in the cloud with an Azure free account Are you ready to follow along with this tutorial? If your answer is Yes! Then click here to register for Azure Subscription. Virtual Network pricing Virtual Network in Azure is free of charge. Every subscription can create up to 50 Virtual Networks across all regions. Inbound and outbound traffic is charged at both ends of the peered networks. Network appliances such as VPN Gateway and Application Gateway that are run inside a virtual network are also charged. Click the link to read more: Virtual Network Pricing | Microsoft Azure Overview We will be creating two virtual networks and we will be naming them abcofcloudVNetHQ and abcofcloudVNetBranch, after creating the virtual networks, we will then create two virtual machines named VM1 and VM2. VM1 will be placed in a subnet in abcofcloudVNetHQ and VM2 will be placed in a subnet in abcofcloudVNetBranch. Creating a Virtual Network We will start with creating the abcofcloudVNetHQ. Step 1: Sign into the Azure Portal. Step 2: Search for virtual network in the Azure portal search box. Step 3: In the search results, select virtual network right under Marketplace. Step 5: Under the Basics tab, choose the Subscription you want to use for this virtual network. Step 6: A Resource group can be selected from the existing resource group, or a new resource group can be created by clicking on Create new. We will be using the abcofcloudRG for this tutorial. Step 7: Enter a preferred name for the virtual network, for this tutorial, we will be naming the virtual network abcofcloudVNetHQ. Step 8: Choose a preferred location for the virtual network, by clicking on the drop-down and selecting the region you prefer, and then clicking on Next at the bottom, we will be using the UK South for this tutorial. For this tutorial, we will leave the Security tab with the default settings and click on Next. We will be using the 172.20.0.0/16 for our address space and for the subnet, we will be using 172.20.0.0/24 for the Subnet Address range. Step 9: Click on the 3 dots beside the Add a subnet and then click on the Delete address space. Step 10: click on the Add an IP address space, and select the IPv4 with the Starting address as 172.20.0.0, the Address space size will be /16 (65536 addresses) then click on Add. Step 11: Select the + Add a subnet button and enter the HQSubnet1 for the Subnet Name and the Starting address as 172.20.0.0 with the Subnet size as /24 (256 addresses) and then click on Add. Once that is done click on Review + Create and select Create. What we need to do next is create the second Virtual Network which is abcofcloudVNetBranch using the same procedure from Step 1 to Step 11 but we just need to make a few changes. Resource group: abcofcloudRG Virtual network name: abcofcloudVNetBranch Region: UK South IP Address space: 172.22.0.0/16 Subnet name: BranchSubnet1 Starting Address: 172.22.0.0 Subnet size: /24 (256 addresses). Bonus: After creating both virtual networks, in the search box at the top type Network Watcher and on the Network Watcher page click on Topology. Select the Subscription and the Resource Group, you will see both virtual networks and their subnets, but once the peering is added you will see a line showing the peering has been added.   Creating a Virtual Network Peer This is the point where we will peer the virtual networks, for us to do that we need to locate the virtual network we created. We can either do this by going to the Resource group “abcofcloudRG” or using the search box. Step 1: Search for abcofcloudVNetHQ in the Azure portal search box and select it. Step 2: On the abcofcloudVNetHQ virtual network page, click on Peerings Under the Settings area and then click on + Add. Once that is done, we need to add peering from this virtual network “abcofcloudVNetHQ” to the remote virtual network “abcofcloudVNetBranch”. Step 3: Now that we are on the Add peering page, we need to choose a preferred name for the peering link name for this virtual network, and for this tutorial, I will be using the abcofcloudVNetHQ-to-abcofcloudVNetBranch. Step 4: Since the goal is to allow resources in both virtual networks to communicate, for Traffic to remote virtual network, I will leave it on Allow(default), and for Traffic forwarded from a remote virtual network, I will leave it on Allow(default).  The Virtual network gateway or Route Server will be None(default). Step 5: Now it is time to give

Point-to-Site VPN helps us connect through a secure network from a client computer to an Azure virtual network. This simply means you can connect to a compute resource using their private IP on the Azure Virtual Network. What is Point-to-Site VPN A Point-to-Site (P2S) VPN gateway connection lets you create a secure connection to your virtual network from an individual client computer. A P2S connection is established by starting it from the client’s computer. This solution is useful for telecommuters who want to connect to Azure VNets from a remote location, such as from home or a conference. P2S VPN is also a useful solution to use instead of S2S VPN when you have only a few clients that need to connect to a VNet. What is a VPN Gateway A VPN gateway is a type of virtual network gateway that sends encrypted traffic between your virtual network and your on-premises location across a public connection. You can also use a VPN gateway to send traffic between virtual networks across the Azure backbone. Creating a Virtual Network Firstly, we need to create a Virtual Network Step 1: Sign in to the Azure Portal. Step 2: Search for virtual network in Azure portal. Step 3: In the search results, select virtual network right under Marketplace. Step 4: On the Virtual network page, click on Create. Step 5: Under the Basics tab, choose the Subscription you want to use for this project. Step 6: Resource group can be selected from existing resource group, or a new resource group can be created by clicking on Create new. Step 7: Enter a preferred name for the virtual network. Step 8: Choose a preferred location for the Virtual Network, by clicking on the drop-down and selecting the region you prefer, and then click on next at the bottom. Note: The location determines where the resources that you deploy to this VNet will live. For this tutorial, we will leave the Security tab with the default settings and then click on next again. We will be using the 172.16.0.0/16 for our address space and for the subnet we will create two subnets: abcofcloudsubnet with a subnet address space of 172.16.0.0/24. Step 9: On the IP addresses tab click on the Add an IP address space and select the Address space type radio button for IPv4. Starting address type 172.16.0.0, Address space size use the drop-down to select /16 (65536 addresses) and click the Add button. Step 10: After this has been added you can now delete the default address space. Step 11: This is the time we add our subnet, click on the plus(+) button beside Add a subnet, and on the pop-out button by the right under the Subnet details enter a preferred name, for this tutorial I will be using abcofcloudsubnet, the Starting address as 172.16.0.0 and Subnet size as /24 (256 addresses) then click on the Add button. Step 12: Click on the Review + Create button to have an overview of your settings and then click Create. Let’s Create the VPN Gateway Step 1: Search for Virtual network gateway in Azure portal. Step 2: In the Search result, under Marketplace select Virtual network gateway. Step 3: Choose the subscription you want from the drop-down. Step 4: The Resource Group will be auto-filled when we select the virtual network. Step 5: Enter any preferred name for your gateway. Step 6: We will be using VPN as the Gateway type in this tutorial. Step 7: Route-based is the VPN type we will be using for this tutorial, this can be selected based on your requirement or business need. Step 8: SKU will be VpnGw2AZ for this tutorial, I will be adding some links where you can learn more about the SKU, resizing, and zone redundant. Step 9: Generation2 will be the choice for this tutorial. Step 10: Our Virtual network will be the one we created previously. Step 11. You can either create a subnet in your virtual subnet with the name Gatewaysubnet or you get the Gateway subnet address range automatically. Step 12: We will change the default Gateway subnet address range to 172.16.1.0/27 or larger which is (/26,/25,/24, etc.)  Anything lesser will throw an error if you’re trying to deploy a zone-redundant/zonal gateway and also this allows enough IP addresses for future changes. Step 13: Public IP address is set to Create new; you can choose to use existing if you already have one created. These settings specify the public IP address object that gets associated with the VPN gateway. The public IP address is assigned to this object when the VPN gateway is created. The only time the primary Public IP address changes is when the gateway is deleted and re-created. It doesn’t change across resizing, resetting, or other internal maintenance/upgrades of your VPN gateway. Step 14: Enter a preferred name for the Public IP address name. The Assignment setting is controlled by the Public IP Address Type value. Enable active-active mode and Configure BGP will be disabled in this tutorial. Step 15: Click on Review + Create and then Create. Tags can be added based on your requirements. Once you hit the Create button, it’s time to go get a bottle of drink because I also paused and went to a bottle of drink. Also, make sure you don’t refresh the page because it can take 45 minutes or more to fully create and deploy. You will see the status of the deployment on the overview page for the gateway. Welcome from the short break, the next thing we will be doing is creating a Self-Sign root and client certificate. Creating Self-Signed Certificate Step 1: Open PowerShell with elevated privileges from a computer running Windows 10 or later, or Windows Server 2016. Step 2: Copy and paste the cmdlet below on PowerShell. This cmdlet will create a self-signed root certificate named ‘abcofcloudP2SRootCert’ that is automatically installed in ‘Certificates-Current User\Personal\Certificates’. If you want to use your preferred name modify the