Tutorial / Cram Notes
This is particularly relevant when preparing for the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam, which assesses the ability to manage and monitor Azure environments, including hybrid connections. Monitoring on-premises connectivity involves ensuring that your VPN (Virtual Private Network) Gateways, ExpressRoute, and other networking resources are functioning correctly and efficiently.
Understanding VPN Gateway and ExpressRoute
- VPN Gateway: VPN Gateways are essential for creating a secure connection between an on-premises network and your Azure Virtual Network (VNet). There are different types of VPN connections — Point-to-Site (P2S), Site-to-Site (S2S), and VNet-to-VNet — each serving different connectivity scenarios.
- ExpressRoute: ExpressRoute provides a private connection to Azure services without going over the public internet. It is a more reliable and faster connection method than a VPN and is suitable for high bandwidth needs and where consistent performance is crucial.
Monitoring VPN Gateways
When it comes to monitoring VPN Gateways, Azure provides various metrics and logs:
- VPN Gateway Diagnostics: Generate and review diagnostic logs to troubleshoot connectivity issues. Diagnostic logs contain information about the health and connectivity status of the VPN Gateway.
- Metrics: Azure Monitor provides several metrics such as P2S and S2S connection counts, tunnel status, ingress/egress bytes, and more, which help in understanding the gateway performance.
- Azure Network Watcher: This service provides tools like VPN Diagnostics and Connection Monitor that assist in analyzing and improving the performance and health of your VPN connections.
Monitoring ExpressRoute
With ExpressRoute, the following monitoring strategies are recommended:
- ExpressRoute Circuit Metrics: Monitor metrics like ARP availability, BGP availability, and throughput to evaluate the health and capacity of your ExpressRoute connection.
- ExpressRoute Connection: Check the connectivity status, including the connection’s primary and secondary peerings.
- Azure Network Watcher: Utilize the Azure Network Watcher’s Next Hop, IP Flow Verify, and Connection Troubleshoot features to dive deeper into connectivity issues and gain insights on network traffic behavior.
Hybrid Network Connectivity Best Practices
In monitoring on-premises connectivity, it’s important to follow best practices:
- Regular Checks: Deploy automated monitoring solutions to perform regular health checks on your hybrid connections.
- Alerting: Configure alerts to notify you of degraded performance or outages immediately. Azure Monitor can be set up to send email notifications, SMS messages, or trigger automation through Azure Functions or Logic Apps.
- Redundancy: Implement redundant connections (like using an active-active VPN Gateway setup or having redundant ExpressRoute circuits) to ensure high availability.
- Security: Enforce strong security policies and ensure that encryption is enabled for your data crossing the public internet in a hybrid scenario.
Example: Monitoring On-premises Connectivity
Imagine you have an Azure environment that is connected to an on-premises datacenter via an S2S VPN connection. You need to constantly monitor this connection to avoid downtime. You configure Azure Monitor with custom alerts that notify you when VPN tunnel status changes or if there’s a significant fluctuation in ingress/egress traffic which could indicate a possible issue with the network. Additionally, by using Network Watcher’s Connection Monitor, you can simulate traffic and test the connection to proactively spot problems.
By employing these monitoring strategies, as part of the skills tested in the AZ-104 exam, Azure administrators can ensure that their on-premises connectivity with Azure remains reliable, secure, and high-performing, thus enabling efficient administration and management of Azure resources.
Practice Test with Explanation
True or False: Azure Network Performance Monitor can be used to monitor on-premises connectivity.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Network Performance Monitor is a cloud-based hybrid network monitoring solution that helps you monitor network performance between various points in your network infrastructure, including on-premises connectivity.
True or False: Azure ExpressRoute is required for on-premises connectivity to an Azure virtual network.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure ExpressRoute is not required for on-premises connectivity; it is an option for creating a private connection to Azure. VPNs can also be used for on-premises connectivity.
Which of the following Azure services can monitor the health of a VPN gateway? (Select two)
- Azure VPN Gateway
- Azure Network Watcher
- Azure Network Security Group
- Azure Application Gateway
Answer: Azure VPN Gateway, Azure Network Watcher
Explanation: Azure VPN Gateway allows you to monitor the status and health of the VPN tunnel, and Azure Network Watcher provides troubleshooting tools like VPN diagnostics and packet capture.
True or False: Site-to-Site VPN connections support multi-site connections.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Site-to-Site VPN connections can be used for multi-site connectivity, allowing different on-premises sites to connect to an Azure virtual network.
True or False: Azure virtual network (VNet) peering can be used to connect VNets across Azure regions and VNets in an on-premises environment.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure VNet peering only connects Azure virtual networks with each other across the same or different regions. It cannot directly connect to on-premises environments.
Which Azure service is primarily used to check for potential security vulnerabilities in the network?
- Azure Firewall
- Azure Advisor
- Azure Security Center
- Azure Log Analytics
Answer: Azure Security Center
Explanation: Azure Security Center provides advanced threat protection and helps check for potential security vulnerabilities across Azure services, including network components.
True or False: You can configure a network performance monitor in Azure to alert based on network parameters like loss and latency.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Network Performance Monitor allows you to set up alerts based on various network performance metrics, such as loss and latency, to proactively monitor and resolve connectivity issues.
What Azure feature can provide insights into your on-premises networking topology? (Select one)
- Azure Service Map
- Azure Monitor
- Azure Traffic Manager
- Azure Resource Manager
Answer: Azure Service Map
Explanation: Azure Service Map automatically discovers application components on Windows and Linux systems and maps the communication between services, providing insights into the networking topology of your on-premises environments.
True or False: When configuring a VPN Gateway, IPsec/IKE policy only allows for the use of predefined security algorithms and parameters.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: IPsec/IKE policy in Azure VPN Gateway allows you to specify the suite of algorithms and other settings to use within an IPsec/IKE connection, which includes predefined as well as custom options, thus providing flexibility to match on-premises policy settings.
Which of the following capabilities are provided by Azure Network Watcher? (Select two)
- Packet capture
- User-defined routes audit
- Application firewall management
- Virtual machine scale set configuration
Answer: Packet capture, User-defined routes audit
Explanation: Azure Network Watcher provides tools to monitor, diagnose, and gain insights into network performance and health, including packet capture capabilities and auditing of user-defined routes (UDRs). It does not manage application firewalls or configure virtual machine scale sets directly.
True or False: The Azure Route-Based VPN type supports Multi-Site VPN and VNet-to-VNet configurations.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: The Route-Based VPN type in Azure supports the configuration of Multi-Site VPNs and VNet-to-VNet connections, which is more flexible and compatible with most configurations compared to the Policy-Based VPN type.
True or False: Azure Application Gateway can be used as a firewall between your on-premises data center and Azure.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer enabling you to manage traffic to web applications. It is not a firewall, although it offers some security features such as Web Application Firewall (WAF). Azure Firewall or Network Security Groups are better suited for firewall capabilities.
Interview Questions
What is on-premises connectivity?
On-premises connectivity refers to the network connection between your organization’s physical or virtual infrastructure and Azure.
What is Azure Network Watcher?
Azure Network Watcher is a network monitoring and diagnostic service that provides tools to monitor, diagnose, and gain insights into the network connectivity of Azure resources.
What tools does Network Watcher provide to diagnose on-premises connectivity issues?
Network Watcher provides several tools, including Connection Monitor, IP Flow Verify, Next Hop, and Packet Capture.
What is Connection Monitor?
Connection Monitor is a tool in Network Watcher that continuously tests a connection to a target IP address and port from a specified source location to detect any connection failures or performance issues.
What is IP Flow Verify?
IP Flow Verify is a tool in Network Watcher that verifies that network traffic is being correctly routed to and from a VM by checking the state of the security group rules and network interface configurations.
What is Next Hop?
Next Hop is a tool in Network Watcher that helps diagnose connectivity issues by identifying the next hop IP address, MAC address, and network interface that a packet will take along its path to a target VM.
What is Packet Capture?
Packet Capture is a tool in Network Watcher that captures network traffic to and from a VM, allowing you to troubleshoot connectivity issues.
What is a Network Security Group (NSG)?
A Network Security Group is a security feature in Azure that allows you to filter network traffic to and from Azure resources based on source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols.
How can NSGs help diagnose on-premises connectivity issues?
NSGs can be used to filter traffic to and from a VM to help diagnose connectivity issues by allowing you to see which traffic is being blocked or allowed.
How can Azure Monitor help diagnose on-premises connectivity issues?
Azure Monitor can be used to monitor network traffic, detect connectivity issues, and provide alerts and insights into the performance of your network. It can also be used to monitor the health of your on-premises resources that are connected to Azure.
Great post on monitoring on-premises connectivity for the AZ-104 exam!
Can anyone explain how Network Watcher helps in monitoring on-premises connectivity?
Is it necessary to use ExpressRoute for better on-premises connectivity monitoring?
Thanks for the helpful information!
I found the Network Performance Monitor very useful for this purpose.
How critical is understanding Azure Monitor logs for the AZ-104 exam?
What are the key metrics to monitor for on-premises connectivity?
Can someone recommend a detailed guide for setting up Azure Monitor?