Azure VM and Web App in VNET VPN, changing IP and automatic start of vpn

Question

To connect Web App to VM I created a Vnet (point 2 site). Web app can see VM now, but:

it can access it just through an IP and not the host name. To use host name, I found info that I have to setup my DNS server. There are two problems with that: 1) i don't want to setup and maintain DNS 2) i don't know how to setup a DNS, so think that option is out then
IP which I get after VPN is established changes every time. How to specify static IP for Vnet VPN? I saw instructions how to setup static internal IP, but that's not an IP I get with VPN
I need to RDP into VM and start VPN manually. I don't want to do that. How to start VPN when OS boots? When VPN starts it shows some dialog waiting me to press "connect", can that be a problem in automatic vpn connection through some script?

Anyway, vnets are so far too difficult (at least for a developer like me), hope they will simplify it for commons scenarios. Please feel free to suggest some other approach for connecting PaaS (web apps) with IaaS (VM with background services, database, etc).

thanks all for answers in advance ...

Noor Khaldi · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-15 07:30:33Z

To access the server using a name instead of IP, you indeed need to use DNS, don't worry though, it's not that hard, here's an exact step-by-step article on how to do it: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mcsuksoldev/archive/2014/03/04/creating-a-dns-server-in-azure-iaas.aspx
The IP address the client gets after connecting to VPN changes every time and there is no way to set that to a static IP, however the IP address that the VM get inside the Vnet doesn't change unless the VM was turned off/on, you don't need to worry about the IP address the client is getting, worry about the IP address the VM is getting, set that to a static IP address and you'll be able to access the same VM with the same IP address all the time. here's how to set an IP for an existing VM: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-networks-reserved-private-ip/
Microsoft have yet to add the ability to Auto-Dial for Point-To-Site VPN connections, the idea has been floating for a long time now, but it seems that the teach people of Microsoft are busy with Windows 10 :), there's a well known work around though, you may use that until Microsoft finally decides to address the problem, the work around though is a bit long, give it a try and hope it works: http://www.diaryofaninja.com/blog/2013/11/27/deconstructing-the-azure-point-to-site-vpn-for-command-line-usage

Thanks for detailed answer! About the second point; I can access VM from WebApp only through VPN IP, not the internal IP, so why setting internal IP as static then? Third bullet; will try to follow this tutorial, but if VPN can't start automatically it makes VM totally unusable in scenario when WebApp needs to talk to VM. MS restarts my VM at least once per month, I need to prepare for this since I don't have internet access 24/7 to RDP in. — Hrvoje Hudo
– Hrvoje Hudo, Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 10:16
"I can access VM from WebApp only through VPN IP, not the internal IP" you lost me here my friend, when you create a Vnet, lets say with the subnet of 10.0.0.x. and you add a VM to that Vnet, lets say 10.0.0.10, and you then add Site-to-VPN gateway to the same Vnet, you will be able to connect to that Vnet using a VPN client, and communicate with the internal resources of that Vnet using the IPs assigned to them, so in this scenario, you connect using a VPN client and get a random IP address, but you would still be able to connect to the VM using the IP 10.0.0.10, which is the internal IP. — Noor Khaldi
– Noor Khaldi, Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 19:14

Stack Exchange Network

Azure VM and Web App in VNET VPN, changing IP and automatic start of vpn

1 Answer 1

You must log in to answer this question.

Hot Network Questions

Azure VM and Web App in VNET VPN, changing IP and automatic start of vpn

1 Answer 1

You must log in to answer this question.

Related

Hot Network Questions