Last week, around August 26-27th 2020 Custom Route Tables in Azure Virtual WAN lit up in my Azure Tenants. Awesome news. Normally this should have happened the week of the 3d of August 2020. However, some delay happened. Now it is here is has come in silence. Which I find odd. This is a major capability that offers so much of what we need to make Azure Virtual WAN shine. But it is here, ready to shine at Microsoft Ignite
Watch my video on custom route tables in Azure virtual WAN
Custom Route Tables in Azure Virtual WAN
What do we have now? You can read up on Azure Virtual WAN route tables over here. I have made a video about all this which you can find on my blog and on my Vimeo channel. Please take a look for some walkthroughs and links to some other blog posts by me on Azure Virtual WAN.
LabELs
First of all, let’s discuss the labels. Labels logically group route tables. These are very helpful when propagating routes from connections to multiple route tables. The Default Route Table has a built-in label called ‘Default’. When you propagate connection routes to the ‘Default’ label, it automatically applies to all the Default Route Tables across every hub in the Virtual WAN.
Creating a label
Associations
Now, we can discuss associations. Each connection is associated with one route table. This means that the connection can send to the destination indicated as routes in the route table it is associated with. The routing configuration of the connection will show the associated route table. This is very important for connected VNETs. Multiple connections can be associated with the same route table. Note that all VPN, ExpressRoute, and User VPN connections are associated with the same (default) route table.
Association
By default, all connections are associated with the Default route table in a virtual hub. Each virtual hub has its own Default route table. You can add one or more static routes to the default Route table. Static routes take precedence over dynamically learned routes for the same prefixes.
Propagations
Last but not least, connections dynamically propagate routes to one or more route table. VPN, ExpressRoute, and User VPN connections propagate routes to the same set of route tables. With connections like a Site-2-Site VPN, Express Route, or Point-2-Site VPN, routes are propagated from the virtual hub to the on-premises router using BGP.
Propagations for BranchesPropagation for a connected VNET
A “None” route table is also available for each virtual hub. Propagating to the None route table implies that no routes are propagated from the connection.
Some need to ask
Finally, some customers need to reach out to support in order to get Azure Virtual WAN Custom route tables to light up.
Contact Microsoft support if and when needed to enable custom route tables for you.
As a result, I suggest you do so to start kicking the tires and then dive in deeper. This is a cornerstone technology for Azure networking going forward.
Automation
I have not found any documentation or guidance in regards to automation with PowerShell, Azure CLI, or ARM templates yet. I expect this to be forthcoming as this is much needed. As a result, I hope we’ll see this by Microsft Ignite 2020.
Conclusion
Azure Virtual WAN with the secured Virtual Hub and custom route tables offers the capabilities we have been waiting for. With these capabilities in place. Azure Virtual WAN is the future of Azure virtual networking. Therefore, I fully expect to hear a lot more about it during Microsoft Ignite in September. I personally will focus on this part of networking in the coming months. It is a stock part of any Azure initiative and project in the near future.
When it comes to Azure Virtual WAN, you might have the impression it is only useful for huge, international entities. Entities like the big Fortune 500 companies, with a significant, distributed global presence.
I can understand why. That is where the attention is going, and it makes for excellent examples to showcase. Also, the emphasis with SD-WAN has too often been about such cases. SD-WAN also enables economically feasible, reliable, and redundant connectivity for smaller locations and companies than ever before. My take is that Azure Virtual WAN is for everyone!
Azure Virtual WAN is for everyone
I would also like to emphasize that Azure Virtual WAN is so much more than just SD-WAN. That does not distract from SD-WAN’s value. SD-WAN is a crucial aspect of it in terms of connectivity to and from your Azure environment. I would even say that the ability to leverage Microsoft’s global network via Azure Virtual WAN is the most significant force multiplier that SD-WAN has gotten in the past year.
Network appliance vendors are signing on to integrate with Azure Virtual WAN for a good reason. It makes sense to leverage one of the biggest, best, and fastest global networks in the world to provide connectivity for your customers.
One extreme use case would be to use Azure Virtual WAN only as an SD-WAN carrier just to connect your sites without using anything in Azure. An example of this would be a business that is still on-prem but wants to move to Azure. That is a good start. It modernizes connectivity between the locations while becoming ready to move workloads to Azure, where the landing zone is integrated into Azure Virtual WAN when it is time to do so.
A Medium Enterprise example
But let’s step back a minute. The benefits of Azure Virtual WAN go beyond SD-WAN deployments for multinational companies spanning the globe. Make no mistake about this. SD-WAN is also very interesting for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), and the benefits of Azure Virtual WAN go beyond on-premises to Azure connectivity. It extends to connecting any location to any location.
SD-WAN leveraging Azure Virtual WAN and the Microsoft Global Network
On-premises connectivity is more than a data center, a corporate HQ, and branch offices with ExpressRoute and/or Site-to-Site VPN (S2S). It is also a user via a Point-to-Site VPN (P2S). All of these can be anywhere in the world but also distributed across your city, country, or continent. Think about what that means for “remote work by default” shops. Every individual, whether working with you as an employee, partner, customer, consultant or contractor, can be connected to your Azure virtual WAN and your on-premises locations thanks to the any-to-any connectivity.
Some people might have an NGFW at home, depending on their role and needs. Many others will be fine with a point-to-site VPN, which serves both work-from-home profiles as well as road warriors.
People, if this Coronavirus global pandemic has not awakened you to this importance and possibility of remote work, I do not know what to tell you. Drink a lot more coffee?
For example, a national retailer, a school, a medical provider with lots of small local presences can all benefit from Azure Virtual WAN. When they merge with others, within or across the borders, Azure Virtual WAN with SD-WAN puts them in a great position to extend and integrate their network.
There is more to Azure Virtual WAN than SD-WAN
We have not touched on the other benefits Azure Virtual WAN brings. These benefits are there, even if you have no on-premises locations to connect. That would be another extreme, Azure Virtual WAN without any SD-WAN deployment. While the on-premises deployment of apps goes down over time, it will not go ways 100% for everyone. Also, even in a 100% cloud-native environment, having other connectivity options than over the internet and public services can help with security, speed, and cost reduction.
The Any-to-Any capabilities, the ease of use, leading to operational cost saving, are game-changing. Combined with the integration with Azure Firewall manager to create a Secure Virtual HUB and custom routing, it makes for a very flexible way of securing and managing network access and security.
Hybrid scenarios
Don’t think that SMEs will only have 2 to 5 subscriptions, or even less if they are just consumers of cloud services outsourced to a service provider, with one or a couple of vNETs.
If you do not have many subscriptions, you can still have a lot of vNETs. You create vNETs per application, business unit, etc. On top of that, in many cases, you will have development, testing, acceptance, and production environments for these applications.
You might very well do what we do, and what we see more of again, lots of subscriptions. You can create subscriptions for every application environment, business unit, etc. The benefits are clear and easy to measure distinction in ownership, responsibilities, costs, and security. That means a company can have dozens to hundreds of subscriptions that way. These can all have multiple vNETs. When an SME wants to protect itself against downtime, two regions come into play. That means that the hub-to-hub transitive nature excels.
Azure Virtual WAN – Hybrid scenario
Now, managing VNET peering, transit vNETs, Network Gateways, Firewalls, and route tables all become a bit of a chore fast when the environment grows. Rolling all that work into a convenient, centralized virtual global service makes sense to reduce complexity, reduce operational costs, and simplify your network architecture and design.
Going cloud first and cloud native
In a later stage, your organization can reduce its on-premises footprint and go for an all cloud-based approach. Be realistic, there might very well be needs for some on-premises solutions but Azure Stack has you covered there. You can leverage Azure Stack HCI, Edge, or even hub or those needs but still integrate deployment, management, operations, and monitoring into Azure.
Azure Virtual WAM – Cloud first scenario
Global Transit Architecture with Azure Virtual WAN
I still need to drive the capabilities and benefits of the Global Transit Architecture with Azure Virtual WAN home for you. For one, it is any-to-any by default. You can control and limit this where needed, but it works automagically for you out of the box. Second, this is true for ExpressRoute, S2S VPN, P2S VPN, VNET peers, and virtual hubs in all directions.
Branch-to-VNet
Branch-to-branch
ExpressRoute Global Reach and Virtual WAN
Remote User-to-VNet
Remote User-to-branch
VNet-to-VNet
Branch-to-hub-hub-to-Branch
Branch-to-hub-hub-to-VNet
VNet-to-hub-hub-to-VNet
This means that a user with a P2S VPN connected to a virtual hub has access to a datacenter that connects to that same hub or another one within the same Virtual WAN. You can go crisscross all over the place. I love it. Remember that we can secure this, control this.
Any-to-Any – crisscross along locations and connection types – Image adapted from MSFT
Think about that for a moment. When I am on the road connected via a P2S VPN to an azure virtual hub, I can reach my datacenter (ExpressRoute), my office, store, factory, and potentially even my home office (S2S VPN). Next to that, I can reach all my vNETs. It is the same deal when I am working from home or in the office, store, or factory. That is impressive. The default is any-to-any, automagically done for you. But you can restrict and secure this to your needs with custom routing and a secure virtual hub (Azure Firewall Manager).
Conclusion
The benefits of Azure Virtual WAN are plenty, for many scenarios in large, medium and small enterprises. So, I invite you to take a better look. I did. As a result, I have been investing time in diving into its possibilities and potential. I will be presenting on this topic to share my insights into what, to me, is the future of Azure networking. Do not think this is only for the biggest corporations or organizations.
TechNine (https://www.technine.be/) is organizing its first user group event of 2020 on Tuesday 3 March. The TechNine March Updates for IT Pro’s. This is just a quick blog post to invite all who are in our neck of the woods to join us. It is hosted by the Sentia Group in Lochristi.
Content
There are 3 sessions.The first session, Micha Wets – Enterprise Mobility MVP, introduces us all to Azure Policy Guest Configurations. What can this do today and what does it mean for Windows GPO configurations in the long run? Can they co-exist? Come find out!
Microsoft launched the new EDGE chromium-based browser. Erik Moreau – Windows Insider MVP will deliver his insights about this great new browser in the second session. I hope he has some good news about one of my main complaints about it. What is that? Attend and you’ll find out.
The 3rd session is still a mystery … TechNine likes to have a last moment surprise.
Practicalities
Schedule
18h00: Welcome & Food
18h30: Azure Policy Guest Configurations: The end of Windows GPO? – Micha Wets
19h15: The New Edge – Erik Moreau
20h00: Break
20h15: To be announced, stay tuned!
21h00: Networking and Questions
21h30: End
When: Tuesday, March 3rd, 18:00 sharp
Location: Sentia, Denen 157, 9080 Lochristi, Belgium
The TechNine SMB Technology User Group has a meetup on December the 4th 2019. It will be the last event of 2019.
It takes place at Ingram Micro who is hosting this at Ingram Micro, Hermeslaan 1b / 3rd floor, B-1831 Diegem. Thanks for this.
There are 3 speakers who will share some of their insights with you.
Hyper-V backups. The good, the bad, the ugly
This is the session I am giving. I presented this before and I have found that it still delivers a lot of value and insights to people. Every time it has helped some attendees out. We’ll discuss how Hyper-V backups have improved and why. I will also share some insights into what can trip you up with Windows Server 2016/2019.
7 Habits every Azure Admin Must Have
Wim Matthyssen, a well known Azure specialist at Cegeka and is an experienced speaker delivers this one. It will help you be a better Azure admin. As he is a Microsoft Certified Trainer his teaching talents are well developed. We can only benefit from this.
The mystery session
Diego Lensis an experienced trainer, speaker, and Citrix expert. He works as a Cloud Technology Strategist and he will bring us a mystery session. Actually, it is such a mystery I honestly have no idea what it is all about. You’ll have to attend to find out! a talk about Azure Migrate This is “the” tool for migrating workloads to Azure. Is this the forklift for lift and shift or is there more to know? Come and find out!
TechNine SMB Technology User Group event on December 4th 2019
Calendar: 18h00: Welcome & Food 18h30: Hyper-V backups. The good, the bad, the ugly – Didier Van Hoye 19h15: 7 habits every Azure admin must have – Wim Matthyssen 20h00: Break 20h15: Mystery session 😊 – Diego Lens 21h00: Networking and Questions 21h30: End When: Woensdag 4/12 om 18:00 Where: Ingram Micro, Hermeslaan 1b / 3rd floor, B-1831 Diegem
Register
If you are interested in attending just navigate to the TechNine SMB Usergroup website read up un the other sessions and register. It is as easy as that. If you don’t even have the time for that, the blow button takes you directly to the Eventbrite site for registration.
