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After confirming circuit health, the next step is to validate your peering configuration. This ensures the peerings for an ExpressRoute circuit are present, properly provisioned, and ready for BGP session establishment and traffic flow. This guide shows how to verify peerings both in the Azure portal and from the command line (Azure CLI and PowerShell). It also includes common troubleshooting steps and quick checks to help you identify configuration mismatches.

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What to verify (Quick checklist)

  • Peerings (Private, Microsoft, Public) exist for the circuit.
  • Each peering’s provisioning state is Provisioned.
  • Primary and secondary IP addresses for Private peering are present and correct.
  • VLAN ID and peer ASN match what your connectivity provider expects.
  • BGP session parameters (peer ASN, authentication, passwords) are consistent on both sides.
Before making changes, record the current peering settings (VLAN, ASN, IP pairs). You can use the Azure CLI or PowerShell to export these settings for auditing or troubleshooting.

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Verify in the Azure portal

  1. Open the Azure portal and navigate to your ExpressRoute circuit.
  2. From the circuit Overview, open the “Peerings” section.
  3. Confirm the configured peerings appear (for example: Private, Microsoft, Public—as applicable).
  4. For each peering:
    • Check the provisioning status: it should be Provisioned.
    • For Private peering, confirm both primary and secondary IP addresses are populated and match your design.
    • Validate VLAN ID and peer ASN are correct for your environment.
Mismatches or missing entries commonly indicate configuration issues that will prevent BGP session establishment or traffic flow.

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Command-line checks

Use the CLI for scripted validation and quick automation-friendly checks.
  • Azure CLI (recommended for scripting)
Check each peering object for:
  • provisioningState or status = Provisioned
  • ipv4Routes? and IP address fields (primary/secondary) for Private peering
  • peeringType, vlanId, peerASN
  • PowerShell
Inspect the returned objects for ProvisioningState, PeeringType, PeerASN, VlanId, and IP configuration properties.

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Quick reference table

Note: In the table above, any JSON or object-like values are shown as code to avoid parsing issues (for example, properties.ipConfigurations).

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Troubleshooting tips

  • If a peering is missing:
    • Confirm the peering was created on the correct ExpressRoute circuit and in the correct resource group.
    • Verify you selected the correct peering type (Private, Microsoft, Public) when creating the peering.
  • If a peering’s provisioning state is not Provisioned or is stuck:
    • Verify VLAN ID and peer ASN are configured correctly both in Azure and by your connectivity provider.
    • Confirm primary/secondary IP address pairs match the provider’s assigned addresses.
    • Ensure required route filters, service keys, or other provider-specific settings have been applied.
  • If BGP does not establish:
    • Validate BGP authentication (if used), peer ASNs, and BGP passwords on both sides.
    • Review edge-router logs and any notifications from your connectivity provider for session negotiation errors.
    • Confirm prefix advertisements and route filters are correctly applied.
  • If you see inconsistent or unexpected IP settings in the portal vs. provider documentation:
    • Do not change values unilaterally—coordinate changes with the connectivity provider to avoid mismatched configurations.
Do not change VLAN IDs, peer ASNs, or IP assignments without confirming with your connectivity provider—these values must match exactly on both sides to establish BGP and avoid outages.

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Example inspection of Azure CLI JSON output

When you run the Azure CLI command above, a peering object in the JSON might include fields such as:
  • peeringType
  • peerASN
  • vlanId
  • ipConfigurations (contains primaryIPv4 and secondaryIPv4 for Private peering)
  • provisioningState
Use jq or equivalent JSON parsing tools to extract and compare these values programmatically as part of validation scripts. By following these checks and using the portal and CLI examples above, you can quickly validate ExpressRoute peering configuration and identify common provisioning issues.

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