Skip to main content

​
Overview

Gateway Transit is an Azure feature that simplifies network connectivity by using a single, shared, peered virtual network gateway rather than provisioning individual gateways for each virtual network (VNet). This design not only streamlines connectivity but also reduces management overhead and operational expenses. Imagine you have three virtual networks—VNet A, VNet B, and VNet C—along with your on-premises network for developers. Traditionally, every VNet would require its own VPN gateway for a site-to-site connection to the on-premises network. This conventional approach leads to several challenges:
  • Redundancy and Complexity: Managing separate VPN gateways for each VNet increases complexity and the risk of misconfigurations.
  • Cost: Multiple VPN gateways incur additional charges, raising operational expenses.
  • Resource Utilization: Valuable resources are tied up managing multiple gateways instead of being efficiently deployed elsewhere.
Gateway Transit centralizes connectivity by using a hub-and-spoke design. Instead of establishing direct site-to-site connections from every VNet, each connects via peering to a central hub where a single virtual network gateway handles the connection to the on-premises network.

​
Hub-and-Spoke Architecture

In a Gateway Transit configuration, the hub VNet contains a single VPN gateway connected via a site-to-site link to the on-premises network. The benefits of this approach include:
  • Centralized Management: Simplifies network topology with a single control point.
  • Reduced Complexity: Eliminates the need for multiple individual gateways.
  • Cost Efficiency: Reduces operational costs by requiring only one VPN gateway.
  • Resource Optimization: Allows spoke VNets to allocate resources to other tasks.
  • Streamlined Connectivity: Provides a low-latency path for inter-network traffic.
The diagram below illustrates the hub-and-spoke network architecture for Gateway Transit:
The image illustrates a network architecture for "Gateway Transit," showing multiple virtual networks (VNet-A, VNet-B, VNet-C) connected through a hub VNet with peering, and an on-premises network connected via site-to-site (S2S) VPN.
This architecture is a best practice in Azure landing zones and supports scalability, high performance, and effective cost management.

​
Demo Walkthrough: Point-to-Site VPN Connection

In this lesson, we demonstrate a point-to-site VPN connection, which allows direct access to Azure virtual machines over a private IP connection. The demo involves several configuration steps:
  1. Configure Point-to-Site VPN:
    Within Azure, a point-to-site VPN connection is set up using Azure Active Directory authentication.
  2. Establish VNet Peering:
    A peering is created between the virtual network in East US (host to a VM) and the hub VNet that contains the VPN gateway. Gateway transit is enabled in the peering settings to properly route traffic to on-premises networks or other destinations.
The Azure portal displays the point-to-site VPN configuration as follows:
The image shows a Microsoft Azure portal page for configuring a point-to-site VPN connection. It includes settings for address pool, tunnel type, and Azure Active Directory authentication.
The following screenshot confirms the peering connection with the VPN gateway:
The image shows the Microsoft Azure portal displaying the "Peerings" section of a virtual network, listing two connected peerings with their statuses and gateway transit settings.
The next image illustrates the gateway transit configuration details in the peering setup:
The image shows a Microsoft Azure portal page for configuring a virtual network peering named "eus-hub," with options for network access and traffic forwarding settings.
After configuring the connection, you can establish a point-to-site session using the Azure VPN Client. The following image shows the VPN connection interface and status logs:
The image shows a Microsoft Azure portal with a VPN connection interface. It displays connection properties and status logs for a VPN named "intersite-vnet."

​
Verifying Connectivity

Below is an example demonstration using a Linux terminal. The steps show how to verify connectivity by pinging an Azure virtual machine and establishing an SSH connection over a private IP.
A similar process can be executed in a Windows environment using PowerShell. Use the following command to establish an SSH connection over the private IP:
After connecting, verify network connectivity by running a ping command:
By setting up a point-to-site connection to the virtual network gateway, you enable routing through a peered virtual network using Gateway Transit. As a result, VNets A, B, and C can securely access on-premises resources through a single, centralized gateway.
With the Gateway Transit configuration successfully completed, the next topic in this lesson will cover user-defined routes. This further enhances network routing by allowing more granular control over traffic flows across your Azure environment.

Watch Video