Lab 14 – VNet Peering & VPN Gateway

Objectives

Prerequisites

Estimated time

40 minutes (VPN gateway provisioning alone can take ~30 min — plan accordingly)

Part 1 – Create two VNets (non-overlapping address spaces)

❗

important

VNet address spaces MUST NOT overlap for peering to work. Check both VNets' address ranges before creating peering links.

  1. Search for Virtual networks > Create.

- Resource group: Create new rg-az104-lab14

- Name: vnet-hub14

- Address space: 10.70.0.0/16

- Subnets: subnet-hub with 10.70.1.0/24

- Create.

  1. Repeat to create vnet-spoke14:

- Address space: 10.71.0.0/16 (non-overlapping)

- Subnets: subnet-spoke with 10.71.1.0/24

- Create.

Part 2 – Create VNet peering (both directions)

  1. Go to vnet-hub14 > Peerings (under Settings) > + Add.
  2. Add peering:

- Peering link name: hub-to-spoke

- Remote virtual network:

- Select by ID > choose vnet-spoke14

- Allow access between VNets: Checked

- Add.

  1. Go to vnet-spoke14 > Peerings > + Add.
  2. Add peering:

- Peering link name: spoke-to-hub

- Remote virtual network: select vnet-hub14

- Allow access between VNets: Checked

- Add.

Both peerings should now show Connected status.

Part 3 – Test connectivity

  1. Create two VMs:

- Virtual machines > Create > vm-hub, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS,

vnet-hub14/subnet-hub with a public IP. Create.

- Create vm-spoke, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, vnet-spoke14/subnet-spoke

with No public IP. Create.

  1. SSH into vm-hub using its public IP, then ping/SSH to vm-spoke's private IP

(e.g., 10.71.1.x) — should succeed over the peering connection (private

IPs, no public exposure needed).

Part 4 – Peering options: gateway transit & forwarded traffic

  1. Go to hub-to-spoke peering > Edit peering:

- Allow forwarded traffic: Checked (lets traffic NOT originating in

the peered VNet pass through — needed for NVAs/firewalls)

- Save.

  1. Discuss (no need to configure now): Allow gateway transit lets the spoke

use the hub's VPN/ExpressRoute gateway (hub-spoke topology) — set on the hub

side; spoke side sets Use remote gateways.

📝

note

VNet peering is not transitive — if spoke A peers with hub, and hub

peers with spoke B, A cannot reach B unless explicitly peered (or via gateway

transit + an NVA).

Part 5 – (Optional) Site-to-Site VPN Gateway

This part provisions a real gateway — expensive and slow (~30 min). Only

do this if you want hands-on VPN experience; otherwise read through for concepts.

  1. Go to vnet-hub14 > Subnets > + Subnet. Create:

- Name: GatewaySubnet (reserved name)

- Address range: 10.70.255.0/27

- Add.

  1. Search for Virtual network gateways > Create.

- Name: vpngw-lab14

- Region: East US

- Gateway type: VPN

- VPN type: Route-based

- Virtual network: vnet-hub14

- Gateway subnet: GatewaySubnet

- Public IP: Create new (e.g., pip-vpngw)

- SKU: VpnGw1

- Create (provisioning takes ~30 minutes).

  1. While it's provisioning, go to Local network gateways > Create to

represent the on-prem side:

- Name: lng-onprem

- Endpoint: IP address

- IP address: 203.0.113.1 (a placeholder on-prem public IP)

- Address space: 192.168.1.0/24 (a placeholder on-prem network)

- Create.

  1. Once the VPN gateway finishes provisioning, go to vpngw-lab14 >

Connections > + Add to create a Site-to-Site (IPSec) connection:

- Name: conn-onprem

- Connection type: Site-to-Site (IPSec)

- Local network gateway: lng-onprem

- Shared key: P@ssw0rd123! (used for IPSec negotiation)

- Create.

Validation

Cleanup

  1. Resource groups > select rg-az104-lab14 > Delete resource group.

> If you deployed the VPN gateway, deletion can take 10-15+ minutes — that's normal.

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