Azure Insights: Inter-hub VWAN traffic; Node autoprovisioning; Entra

Azure pros discuss setting up inter-hub traffic Azure Virtual WAN manually, node autoprovisioning in Azure Kubernetes Service, and making sense of changes in Microsoft Entra.

Setting up inter-hub traffic Azure Virtual WAN manually

Cor den Boer, writing on 2Azure.nl, discussed how to manually set up inter-hub traffic routing for Azure Virtual WAN. In September, Microsoft added the option to automatically assign firewall routes to all VPN tunnels, forcing all traffic to be routed to the firewall. Before getting started, users should make sure that they have the correct firewall rules in place, no custom or static routes, properly configured firewall diagnostic settings, and are ready for the possibility that VPN traffic might get temporarily interrupted.

In his blog post, Boer shared screenshots of the set up process. He explained that for the demo he created a test environment with two different subscriptions and a default Azure VPN Gateway. According to Boer, custom and static routes will be wiped out by the set up process.

Node autoprovisioning in Azure Kubernetes Service

Microsoft MVP Richard Hooper, writing on Pixel Robots, explored node autoprovisioning for Azure Kubernetes Service. Node Autoprovision is the newest preview feature for AKS, offering users a way to optimize node management. He wrote:

Node Autoprovision (NAP) in AKS is a game-changer for managing node pools. As your workloads expand and diversify in complexity, needing various CPU, memory, and capability configurations, managing your VM configurations can become quite daunting. This is where NAP steps in. NAP dynamically decides the optimal VM configuration for your pending pod resource requirements, ensuring that your workloads run efficiently and cost-effectively. This feature is rooted in the open-source Karpenter project, and its implementation in AKS is also open-source.

According to Hooper, there are a few prerequisites to use the new feature. Users will need an Azure subscription, Azure CLI set up, as well as aks-preview Azure CLI Extension 0.5.170 or newer. He explained some of the current limitations of the feature, how to  enable autoprovisioning, and the testing process.

Making sense of changes in Microsoft Entra