Azure NVAs (Network Virtual Appliances) are virtual appliances that run in a virtual machine (VM) or a container in an Azure virtual network. They are designed to provide additional network services and capabilities beyond what is available natively in Azure.
Here are some examples of Azure NVAs:
- Firewall: Azure NVAs can be used as a firewall to protect your virtual network from unauthorized access. You can use third-party firewall solutions from vendors like Cisco, Check Point, and Fortinet, or you can use Azure Firewall, which is a native firewall service from Microsoft.
- Load Balancer: Azure NVAs can be used as a load balancer to distribute incoming traffic to multiple VMs in a virtual network. This helps to improve the availability and scalability of your applications. You can use third-party load balancer solutions from vendors like F5, Citrix, and Barracuda, or you can use Azure Load Balancer, which is a native load balancing service from Microsoft.
- VPN Gateway: Azure NVAs can be used as a VPN gateway to provide secure remote access to your virtual network from on-premises networks or other Azure virtual networks. You can use third-party VPN gateway solutions from vendors like Cisco, Check Point, and Fortinet, or you can use Azure VPN Gateway, which is a native VPN gateway service from Microsoft.
- Web Application Firewall: Azure NVAs can be used as a web application firewall to protect your web applications from common web-based attacks like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site request forgery (CSRF). You can use third-party web application firewall solutions from vendors like Barracuda, Imperva, and Fortinet, or you can use Azure Web Application Firewall, which is a native web application firewall service from Microsoft.
NAT (Network Address Translation) is a common use case for Azure NVAs. NAT allows multiple devices in a private network to share a single public IP address when accessing the internet. An NVA can be configured to perform NAT, allowing virtual machines in a private subnet to access the internet through a public IP address assigned to the NVA.
For example, let’s say you have an Azure virtual network with a subnet containing multiple virtual machines that need internet access. You can deploy an NVA with NAT capabilities in the subnet, assign a public IP address to it, and configure the NVA to perform NAT. The virtual machines can then use the NVA as their default gateway, and any outbound traffic will be translated to the public IP address assigned to the NVA before being sent to the internet.
Azure NVAs provide a flexible way to add advanced network services and capabilities to your virtual network to meet your specific network requirements.
