Dual-region deployments using Secure Virtual WAN Hub with Routing-Intent without Global Reach

This article describes the best practices for connectivity, traffic flows, and high availability of dual-region Azure VMware Solution when using Azure Secure Virtual WAN with Routing Intent. You learn the design details of using Secure Virtual WAN with Routing-Intent, without Global Reach. This article breaks down Virtual WAN with Routing Intent topology from the perspective of Azure VMware Solution private clouds, on-premises sites, and Azure native. The implementation and configuration of Secure Virtual WAN with Routing Intent are beyond the scope and aren’t discussed in this document.

In regions without Global Reach support or with a security requirement to inspect traffic between Azure VMware Solution and on-premises at the hub firewall, a support ticket must be opened to enable ExpressRoute to ExpressRoute transitivity for both regional hubs. ExpressRoute to ExpressRoute transitivity isn’t supported by default with Virtual WAN. – see Transit connectivity between ExpressRoute circuits with routing intent 

Secure Virtual WAN with Routing Intent is only supported with Virtual WAN Standard SKU. Secure Virtual WAN with Routing Intent provides the capability to send all Internet traffic and Private network traffic to a security solution like Azure Firewall, a third-party Network Virtual Appliance (NVA), or SaaS solution. In the scenario, we have a network topology that spans two regions. There’s one Virtual WAN with two Hubs, Hub1 and Hub2. Hub1 is in Region 1, and Hub2 is in Region 2. Each Hub has its own instance of Azure Firewall deployed(Hub 1 Firewall, Hub 2 Firewall), essentially making them each Secure Virtual WAN Hubs. Having Secure Virtual WAN hubs is a technical prerequisite to Routing Intent. Secure Virtual WAN Hub1 and Hub2 have Routing Intent enabled.

Each region also has an Azure VMware Solution Private Cloud and an Azure Virtual Network. There’s also an on-premises site connecting to both regions, which we review in more detail later in this document.

Understanding Topology Connectivity

Connection
Description

Connections (D)
Azure VMware Solution private cloud connection to its local regional hub.

Connections (E)
on-premises connectivity via ExpressRoute to both regional hubs.

Inter-Hub
Inter-Hub logical connection between two hubs that are deployed under the same Virtual WAN.

The following sections cover traffic flows and connectivity for Azure VMware Solution, on-premises, Azure Virtual Networks, and the Internet.

This section focuses on only the Azure VMware Solution private clouds in both regions. Each Azure VMware Solution private cloud has an ExpressRoute connection to the hub (connections labeled as “D”).

With ExpressRoute to ExpressRoute transitivity enabled on the Secure Hub and Routing-Intent enabled, the Secure Hub sends the default RFC 1918 addresses (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) to both Azure VMware Solution private clouds over connection “D”. In addition to the default RFC 1918 addresses, both Azure VMware Solution private clouds learn more specific routes from Azure Virtual Networks and Networks (S2S VPN, P2S VPN, SDWAN) that are connected to both Hub 1 and Hub 2. Both Azure VMware Solution private clouds don’t learn specific routes from on-premises networks. For routing traffic back to on-premises networks, it uses the default RFC 1918 addresses that it learned via connection “D” from its local regional hub. This traffic transits through the local regional Hub firewall, as shown in the diagram. The Hub firewall has the specific routes for on-premises networks and routes traffic toward the destination over connection “E”. Traffic from both Azure VMware Solution private clouds, heading towards Virtual Networks, will transit the Hub firewall. For more information, see the traffic flow section.

The diagram illustrates traffic flows from the perspective of the Azure VMware Solution Private Cloud Region 1 and Azure VMware Solution Private Cloud Region 2.

Traffic Flow Chart

Traffic Flow Number
Source
Direction
Destination
Traffic Inspected on Secure Virtual WAN Hub firewall?

1
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 1
→
Virtual Network 1
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall

2
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 1
→
On-premises
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall

3
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 1
→
Virtual Network 2
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall, then Hub 2 firewall.

4
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 1
→
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 2
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall, then Hub 2 firewall.

5
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 2
→
Virtual Network 1
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall, then Hub 1 firewall.

6
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 2
→
Virtual Network 2
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall.

7
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 2
→
On-premises
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall.

This section focuses only on the on-premises site. As shown in the diagram, the on-premises site has an ExpressRoute connection to both Hub 1 and Hub 2 (connection labeled as “E”).

With ExpressRoute to ExpressRoute transitivity enabled on both Secure Hubs and Routing-Intent enabled, each Secure Hub sends the default RFC 1918 addresses (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) to on-premises over connection “E”. In addition to the default RFC 1918 addresses, on-premises learns more specific routes from Azure Virtual Networks and Branch Networks (S2S VPN, P2S VPN, SDWAN) that are connected to both Hub 1 and Hub 2.

By default, on-premises doesn’t learn the specific routes for both Azure VMware Solution Private Clouds. Instead, it routes to both Azure VMware Solution Private Clouds using the default RFC 1918 addresses it learns over connection “E”. On-premises will learn the default RFC 1918 addresses from both Hub 1 and Hub 2 via connection “E”.

To advertise a more specific route down to on-premises, it needs to be accomplished from the “Private Traffic Prefixes” box within Routing Intent. – see Configure routing intent and policies through Virtual WAN portal. You need to add a summarized route that encompasses both your Azure VMware Solution /22 block and your Azure VMware Solution subnets. If you add the same exact prefix or a more specific prefix instead of a summary route, you introduce routing issues within the Azure environment. Therefore, it’s important to remember that any prefixes added to the “Private Traffic Prefixes” box must be summarized routes.

As illustrated in the diagram, Azure VMware Solution Private Cloud 1 includes workload subnets from 10.10.0.0/24 to 10.10.7.0/24. On Hub 1, the summary route 10.10.0.0/21 is added to “Private Traffic Prefixes” because it encompasses all eight subnets. Additionally, on Hub 1, the summary route 10.150.0.0/22 is added to “Private Traffic Prefixes” to cover the Azure VMware Solution management block. Summary routes 10.10.0.0/21 and 10.150.0.0/22 are then advertised down to on-premises via connection “E”, providing on-premises with a more specific route than 10.0.0.0/8.

Azure VMware Solution Private Cloud 2 includes workload subnets from 10.20.0.0/24 to 10.20.7.0/24. On Hub 2, the summary route 10.20.0.0/21 is added to “Private Traffic Prefixes” because it encompasses all eight subnets. Additionally, on Hub 2, the summary route 10.250.0.0/22 is added to “Private Traffic Prefixes.” This covers the Azure VMware Solution management block. Summary routes 10.20.0.0/21 and 10.250.0.0/22 are then advertised down to on-premises via connection “E.” This provides on-premises with a more specific route than 10.0.0.0/8.

There’s no issue in adding the entire Azure VMware Solution Management /22 block under “Private Traffic Prefixes” because Azure VMware Solution doesn’t advertise the exact /22 block back to Azure; it always advertises more specific routes.

As mentioned earlier, when you enable ExpressRoute to ExpressRoute transitivity on the Hub, it sends the default RFC 1918 addresses (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) to your on-premises network. Therefore, you shouldn’t advertise the exact RFC 1918 prefixes (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) back to Azure. Advertising the same exact routes creates routing problems within Azure. Instead, you should advertise more specific routes back to Azure for your on-premises networks.

The diagram illustrates traffic flows from the perspective of on-premises.

Traffic Flow Chart

Traffic Flow Number
Source
Direction
Destination
Traffic Inspected on Secure Virtual WAN Hub firewall?

2
on-premises
→
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 1
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall

7
on-premises
→
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 2
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall

8
on-premises
→
Virtual Network 1
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall

9
on-premises
→
Virtual Network 2
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall

This section focuses only on connectivity from the Azure Virtual Networks perspective. As depicted in the diagram, each Virtual Network has a Virtual Network peering directly to its regional hub.

The diagram illustrates how all Azure native resources in both Virtual Networks learn routes under their “Effective Routes”. With Routing Intent enabled, Hub 1 and Hub 2 always send the default RFC 1918 addresses (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) to their peered Virtual Networks. Azure native resources in the Virtual Networks don’t learn specific routes from outside their Virtual Network. With Routing Intent enabled, all resources in the Virtual Network currently learn the default RFC 1918 address and use their regional hub firewall as the next hop. Azure VMware Solution Private Clouds communicate with each other via connection “D” to their local regional hub firewall. From there, they traverse the Virtual WAN inter-hub and undergo inspection at the cross-regional hub firewall. Additionally, Azure VMware Solution private clouds communicate with on-premises via connection “D” over their local regional hub firewall. All traffic ingressing and egressing the Virtual Networks will always transit their regional hub firewalls. For more information, see the traffic flow section.

The diagram illustrates traffic flows from the Azure Virtual Networks perspective.

Traffic Flow Chart

Traffic Flow Number
Source
Direction
Destination
Traffic Inspected on Secure Virtual WAN Hub firewall?

1
Virtual Network 1
→
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 1
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall

3
Virtual Network 2
→
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 1
Yes, traffic is inspected at Hub 2 firewall then Hub firewall 1

5
Virtual Network 1
→
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 2
Yes, traffic is inspected at Hub 1 firewall then Hub firewall 2

6
Virtual Network 2
→
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 2
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall

8
Virtual Network 1
→
On-premises
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall

9
Virtual Network 2
→
On-premises
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall

10
Virtual Network 1
→
Virtual Network 2
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall then Hub 2 firewall

10
Virtual Network 2
→
Virtual Network 1
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall then Hub 1 firewall

This section focuses only on how internet connectivity is provided for Azure native resources in Virtual Networks and Azure VMware Solution Private Clouds with dual region. There are several options to provide internet connectivity to Azure VMware Solution. – see  Internet Access Concepts for Azure VMware Solution 

Option 1: Internet Service hosted in Azure
Option 2: VMware Solution Managed SNAT
Option 3: Azure Public IPv4 address to NSX-T Data Center Edge

Although you can use all three options with Dual Region Secure Virtual WAN with Routing Intent, “Option 1: Internet Service hosted in Azure” is the best option when using Secure Virtual WAN with Routing Intent and is the option that is used to provide internet connectivity in the scenario. The reason why “Option 1” is considered the best option with Secure Virtual WAN is due to its ease of security inspection, deployment, and manageability.

As mentioned earlier, when you enable Routing Intent on both Secure Hubs, it advertises RFC 1918 to all directly peered Virtual Networks. However, you can also advertise a default route 0.0.0.0/0 for internet connectivity to downstream resources. With Routing Intent, you can choose to generate a default route from both hub firewalls. This default route is advertised to its directly peered Virtual Networks and to its directly connected Azure VMware Solution. This section is broken into two sections, one that explains internet connectivity from both regional Azure VMware Solution perspective and another from the Virtual Networks perspective.

When Routing Intent is enabled for internet traffic, the default behavior of the Secure Virtual WAN Hub is to not advertise the default route across ExpressRoute circuits. To ensure the default route is propagated to its directly connected Azure VMware Solution from the Azure Virtual WAN, you must enable default route propagation on your Azure VMware Solution ExpressRoute circuits – see To advertise default route 0.0.0.0/0 to endpoints. Once changes are complete, the default route 0.0.0.0/0 is then advertised via connection “D” from the hub. It’s important to note that this setting shouldn’t be enabled for on-premises ExpressRoute circuits. As a best practice, it’s recommended to implement a BGP Filter on your on-premises equipment. A BGP Filter in place prevents the inadvertent learning of the default route, adds an extra layer of precaution, and ensures that on-premises internet connectivity isn’t impacted.

When you enable Routing Intent for internet access, it automatically generates a default route from both regional hubs and advertises it to their hub-peered Virtual Network connections. You’ll notice under Effective Routes for the Virtual Machines’ NICs in the Virtual Network that the 0.0.0.0/0 next hop is the regional hub firewall. The default route is never advertised across regional hubs over the ‘inter-hub’ link. Therefore, Virtual Networks use their local regional hub for internet access and have no backup internet connectivity to the cross-regional hub.

For more information, see the traffic flow section.

The diagram illustrates traffic flows from the Virtual Networks and Azure VMware Solution Private Clouds perspective.

Traffic Flow Chart

Traffic Flow Number
Source
Direction
Destination
Traffic Inspected on Secure Virtual WAN hub firewall?

11
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 1
→
Internet
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall

12
Virtual Network 2
→
Internet
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall

13
Virtual Network 1
→
Internet
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 1 firewall

14
Azure VMware Solution Cloud Region 2
→
Internet
Yes, traffic is inspected at the Hub 2 firewall

With Azure VMware Solution using the Dual-Region without Global Reach design, you don’t have outbound internet connectivity redundancy because each Azure VMware Solution private cloud learns the default route from both its local regional hub and isn’t directly connected to its cross-regional hub. If a regional outage that impacts the local regional hub, you have two options in order to achieve internet redundancy that are manual configurations.

Option 1: For Outbound Internet Access Only
During a local regional outage, if you need outbound internet access for your Azure VMware Solution workload, you can opt for VMware Solution Managed SNAT. It’s a straightforward solution that quickly provides the access you need. – see Turn on Managed SNAT for Azure VMware Solution workloads 

Option 2: For Inbound and Outbound Internet Access
During a local regional outage, if you need both inbound and outbound internet access for your Azure VMware Solution cloud, start by removing the “D” connection for your local regional hub. Remove the Authorization Key created for the “D” connection from the Azure VMware Solution blade in the Azure portal. Then, create a new connection to the cross-regional hub. For handling inbound traffic, consider using Azure Front Door or Traffic Manager to maintain regional high availability.

HCX Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) is an optional feature to enable when using HCX Network Extensions (NE). Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) provides optimal traffic routing under certain scenarios to prevent network tromboning between the on-premises-based and cloud-based resources on extended networks.

Enabling Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) for a specific extended network and a virtual machine changes the traffic flow. For Mobility Optimized Networking (MON), egress traffic from that virtual machine doesn’t trombone back to on-premises. Instead, it bypasses the Network Extensions (NE) IPSEC tunnel. Traffic for that virtual machine will now egress out of the Azure VMware Solution NSX-T Tier-1 Gateway> NSX-T Tier-0 Gateway>Azure Virtual WAN.

Enabling Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) for a specific extended network and a virtual machine results in a change. From Azure VMware Solution NSX-T, it injects a /32 host route back to Azure Virtual WAN. Azure Virtual WAN advertises this /32 route back to on-premises, Virtual Networks, and Branch Networks (S2S VPN, P2S VPN, SDWAN). The purpose of this /32 host route is to ensure that traffic from on-premises, Virtual Networks, and Branch Networks (S2S VPN, P2S VPN, SDWAN) doesn’t use the Network Extensions (NE) IPSEC tunnel when destined for the Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) enabled Virtual Machine. Traffic from source networks is directed straight to the Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) enabled Virtual Machine due to the /32 route that is learned.

With ExpressRoute to ExpressRoute transitivity enabled on the Secure Hub and Routing-Intent enabled, the Secure Hub sends the default RFC 1918 addresses (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) to both the on-premises and Azure VMware Solution. In addition to the default RFC 1918 addresses, both on-premises and Azure VMware Solution learn more specific routes from Azure Virtual Networks and Branch Networks (S2S VPN, P2S VPN, SDWAN) that are connected to the hub. However, on-premises networks don’t learn any specific routes from the Azure VMware Solution, nor does the reverse occur. Instead, both environments rely on the default RFC 1918 addresses to facilitate routing back to one another via their local regional Hub firewall. This means that more specific routes, such as HCX Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) Host Routes, aren’t advertised from the Azure VMware Solution ExpressRoute to the on-premises-based ExpressRoute circuit and vice-versa. The inability to learn specific routes introduces asymmetric traffic flows. Traffic egresses Azure VMware Solution via the NSX-T Tier-0 gateway, but returning traffic from on-premises returns over the Network Extensions (NE) IPSEC tunnel.

To correct any traffic asymmetry, you need to adjust the HCX Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) Policy Routes. Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) policy routes determine which traffic goes back to the on-premises Gateway via an L2 extension. They also decide which traffic is routed through the Azure VMware Solution NSX Tier-0 Gateway.

If a destination IP matches and is set to “allow” in the Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) policy configuration, then two actions occur. First, the packet is identified. Second, its sent to the on-premises gateway through the HCX Network Extension appliance.

If a destination IP doesn’t match or is set to “deny” in the Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) policy, the system sends the packet to the Azure VMware Solution Tier-0 for routing.

HCX Policy Routes

Network
Redirect to Peer
Note

Azure Virtual Network Address Space
Deny
Please ensure to explicitly include the address ranges for all your Virtual Networks. Traffic intended for Azure is directed out via the Azure VMware Solution and doesn’t return to the on-premises network.

Default RFC 1918 Address Spaces
Allow
Add in the default RFC 1918 addresses 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16. This configuration ensures that any traffic not matching the above criteria is rerouted back to the on-premises network. If your on-premises setup utilizes addresses that aren’t part of RFC 1918, you must explicitly include those ranges.

0.0.0.0/0
Deny
For addresses that aren’t covered by RFC 1918, such as Internet-routable IPs, or any traffic that doesn’t match the specified entries above, exits directly through the Azure VMware Solution and isn’t redirected back to the on-premises network.

For more information on Virtual WAN hub configuration, see About virtual hub settings.
For more information on how to configure Azure Firewall in a Virtual Hub, see Configure Azure Firewall in a Virtual WAN hub.
For more information on how to configure the Palo Alto Next Generation SAAS firewall on Virtual WAN, see Configure Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW in Virtual WAN.
For more information on Virtual WAN hub routing intent configuration, see Configure routing intent and policies through Virtual WAN portal.

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