On-Demand Azure VPN & Network Diagnostics
0
Deploy cost-effective VPN gateways and run comprehensive network diagnostics in Azure without native tool limitations.
Added Dec 3, 2025
6 signals
The Problem
Azure users face unreliable VPN clients on Linux, expensive VPN Gateway costs running 24/7, and ineffective native troubleshooting tools. Network Watcher lacks detail, standard tools like mtr don't work in Azure's environment, and there's no lightweight way to test connectivity between Azure VMs and external endpoints for intermittent use cases.
Potential Solution
Detailed solution approach available for premium members.
Why Now?
Market timing analysis available for premium members.
Azure VPN client unreliable on Linux
I'm writing this with sadness, but I've wasted a couple of days trying to get the Official Linux Azure VPN client working reliably, and ended up with a Windows 10 VM that works fine. My situation; I'm working over Starlink, so internet via CGNAT. Works perfectly fine, and I've worked with Google cloud vpn for more than a year over Starlink. I needed to connect to a vpn on Azure, so installed the official Microsoft VPN Client. This is only supported on Ubuntu 22 and 24, so I set up a VM with Ubuntu in the linux host. Result, random TLS disconnects, more than 80% of all tls transactions. Impossible to work with! My colleagues on Macs said the same product worked fine on Macs, but I don't have one here. My thinking was that it might be the CGNAT, which causes your ip address to change quite often, so I enabled a VPN on my Linux host to freeze the host IP. No change in the VM, still unreliable. So I set up a host on Google Cloud, with a full UI because of the graphical nature of the VPN client. This host has a fixed public ip. Still unreliable tls! I finally ended up setting up a Windows 10 vm on my Linux+Starlink host, and installed the VPN Client on that VM. Finally reliable VPN. Conclusion, the Linux Azure VPN Client does not work reliably. You can have random drops in TLS connections. I'm probably running into the same bug as [these Cisco engineers](https://community.cisco.com/t5/network-access-control/azure-packet-fragmentation/td-p/5205223/page/2), so hardware issues in Azure servers. I presume the Windows and Mac clients work around these.
Any alternatives for VPN gateway?
Hey guys, new around here, I've been working with a hybrid architecture and noticed that a bulk of my cost is coming from the Azure VPN Gateway running all the time. I tried to explore the option of deallocating it and using it only when needed but I read that the tunnel takes time (~30 minutes) to get up and running. And in my case where the use might be scarce, it doesn't make a lot of sense. I am currently thinking of using an Azure VM to spin up a VPN server of my own so I can turn off the VM and only utilise it when I want but the scalability and availablity might be limited. Is there any other solution to this? Please let me know if I'm mistaken somewhere on the fundamental level since I'm a bit new to this stuff. Thanks!
How to investigate Azure VM's connectivity issues without mtr ?
I have a Linux VM in Azure that has spotty connectivity to an external endpoint in GAE. I would like to investigate using the command line tool mtr, but that provides no results. It looks like this is a feature of Azure networking. I tried using Network Watcher > Connection troubleshoot, but that's worthless. It only shows the VM and the external endpoint with nothing between. Next Hop show s nothing also. How can one conduct an investigation with Azure VMs and Google App Engine? Thanks.
Azure Virtual Machine vs. Azure Virtual Desktop
We are looking to deploy 5-10 VMs for our technicians as our Windows 10 VMs, in our soon to be decommissionned local datacenter, are EoL. They are mainly used for Windows administrative tasks and application testing, so there's not a lot of heavy workloads on these VMs. I'm trying to make up my mind whether I should explore Azure Virtual Desktop or call it a day and spin the required VMs in Azure Virtual Machine instead. Our compute need is relatively small and we plan to power the VMs down when they are not in use, so the cost difference is going to be minimal. Bare in mind that I don't see any other use for Azure Virtual Desktop in our environment for the foreseable future and we would not take advantage of scalability either as we are a pretty static team. The "need" won't evolve. So, basically, I have two scenarios in mind: Scenario A: Create my golden image, deploy 5-10 VMs in Azure Virtual Machines, "assign" users to their VM, beer. Windows Updates would be managed by Azure Update Manager, 3rd party stuff by our RMM. or Scenario B: Create image, configure network, private link, personal host pool, workspace, applications, hosts, security groups, etc., beer. Windows Updated handled by Azure Update Manager, 3rd party by our RMM. I'm not considering a pooled scenario as each person in the team like to have their own little sandbox. I don't know, it feels like I'm trying to create a an extra layer of management/complexity overhead if I'm going the Azure Virtual Desktop route, but at the same time it feels like it's the move I should do. What would be tangible benefits going Azure Virtual Desktop over Azure Virtual Machine in this scenario? All I can see is some minor potential cost savings and the ability to connect through a Web page.
+9 more signals