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Learn about Active Directory and Various Azure Services

Archives for July 2018

Step-by-Step guide to Azure Point-to-Site VPN

Last Updated on July 28, 2018 by Dishan M. Francis

In one of my previous article, I explain how we can create site-to-site VPN connection between local network and azure virtual network. This VPN connection is initiated in your edge firewall or router level. But what if you connecting from remote location such as home? we can use point-to-site method to do that. In this method it will use certificates to do the authentication between end point and azure virtual network. 

So, let’s go ahead and see how we can do that, 

Create Resource Group 

In this exercise, I like to use separate resource group for virtual network and other components. 

1. Log in to Azure portal as global administrator

2. Launch Cloud Shell

3. Then run New-AzureRmResourceGroup -Name REBELVPNRG -Location "East US". In here REBELVPNRG is RG group name and East US is the location.

Create Virtual Network

Now we need to create new virtual network. We can create virtual network using,

New-AzureRmVirtualNetwork -ResourceGroupName REBELVPNRG -Name REBEL-VNET -AddressPrefix 192.168.0.0/16 -Location "East US"

In above, REBEL-VNET is the virtual network name. it uses 192.168.0.0/16 IP address range.

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Step-by-Step Guide to Azure Firewall (Preview)

Last Updated on July 22, 2018 by Dishan M. Francis

When it comes to network security, we use firewalls for perimeter defense. It helps to define security boundaries for infrastructure. There are many conversations about validity of perimeter defense against modern security threats as its more about identities now. However, firewall is still the most commonly used tool to control in & out communications in a network. 

In Azure so far, we were using Azure Network Security Groups or host firewall to filter network traffic. But now Azure Firewall allow to filter traffic pass through Azure Virtual Networks. It works as fully stateful firewall. It is still in preview mode but it is not too early to test its capabilities. 

Features 

• Built-in High Availability – Firewall manages ingress and egress traffic of the network. So high-availability of edge firewall of your network is really important. Azure firewall is a cloud-based service and comes with built-in high availability. Users do not have to pay or do additional configurations for HA. 

• Domain Based Filtering – Traditional Firewall rules are based on IP addresses. We have to define the networks to allow or deny access. Azure firewall can block or allow access based on FQDN. It is also supported to use wild cards.

• Work as fully stateful firewall – Azure firewall allow to create inbound & outbound rules using networks, FQDN, protocols & ports. So, it can monitor nature of active connections and allow or deny relevant packets through firewall. 

• Outbound Source Network Address Translation (SNAT) – All outgoing traffic from virtual networks are translated in to Azure Firewall Public IP Address. It allows to identify and control traffic leaving from your network to other destinations. 

• Azure Monitor Integrations – All Firewall events are logged in to Azure monitor. If required we can send it to log analytics for further analysis. 

• No need to worry about upgrades – If it is hardware firewall, it has its own capacity limitation. It can be based on port utilization, ram or packet processing power. Since azure firewall is cloud-based service, none of those limitations applies to it. it can scale up whenever it needed. 

Licenses

Current license model for this service is based on size of traffic (of ingress & egress) travel through virtual network. 

Known Issues

As it is still on preview mode, it doesn’t come with any SLA. Therefore, do not use it in your production environment. Also, it has some know issues. You can read about those using https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/firewall/overview . 

Demo

In this demo I am going to setup azure firewall and test it using few rules. 

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MVP for Last 6 Years

Last Updated on August 4, 2020 by Dishan M. Francis

I am glad to announce that I have been awarded with MVP award by Microsoft for 6th consecutive time. It is a true honor to be a part of such a great community. I got my first award back in 2014 under Active Directory category. After that for last 5 years I was awarded under Enterprise Mobility Category.

What is MVP Award?

For more than two decades,the Microsoft MVP Award is our way of saying “Thanks!” to outstanding community leaders. The contributions MVPs make to the community, ranging from speaking engagements, to social media posts, to writing books, to helping others in online communities, have incredible impact. Key benefits to MVPs include early access to Microsoft products, direct communication channels with our product teams and an invitation to the Global MVP Summit, an exclusive annual event hosted in our global HQ in Redmond. They also have a very close relationship with the local Microsoft teams in their area, who are there to support and empower MVPs to address needs and opportunities in the local ecosystem.

I take this opportunity to thank my MVP program Manager Betsy Weber, former program manager Simran Chaudhry for their awesome support over the years.

I also like to thank my readers for their support and encouragement over last 7 years. In coming weeks, you will see more enhancements in my blog to give you more user-friendly experience. Also, glad to announce that soon you will able to connect with my YouTube channel. So, stay touch! if you need help with subject matters always feel free to contact me on rebeladm@live.com or follow me on twitter @rebeladm