Create a virtual network peering - different deployment models, same subscription

Article
03/31/2023

In this tutorial, you learn to create a virtual network peering between virtual networks created through different deployment models. Both virtual networks exist in the same subscription. Peering two virtual networks enables resources in different virtual networks to communicate with each other with the same bandwidth and latency as though the resources were in the same virtual network. Learn more about Virtual network peering.

The steps to create a virtual network peering are different, depending on whether the virtual networks are in the same, or different, subscriptions, and which Azure deployment model the virtual networks are created through. Learn how to create a virtual network peering in other scenarios by clicking the scenario from the following table:

Azure deployment model	Azure subscription
Both Resource Manager	Same
Both Resource Manager	Different
One Resource Manager, one classic	Different

A virtual network peering can't be created between two virtual networks deployed through the classic deployment model. If you need to connect virtual networks that were both created through the classic deployment model, you can use an Azure VPN Gateway to connect the virtual networks.

This tutorial peers virtual networks in the same region. You can also peer virtual networks in different supported regions. It's recommended that you familiarize yourself with the peering requirements and constraints before peering virtual networks.

You can use the Azure portal, the Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or an Azure Resource Manager template to create a virtual network peering. Click any of the previous tool links to go directly to the steps for creating a virtual network peering using your tool of choice.

Create peering - Azure portal

Sign in to the Azure portal. The account you sign in with must have the necessary permissions to create a virtual network peering. For a list of permissions, see Virtual network peering permissions.
Click + New, click Networking, then click Virtual network.
In the Create virtual network blade, enter, or select values for the following settings, then click Create:
- Name: myVnet1
- Address space: 10.0.0.0/16
- Subnet name: default
- Subnet address range: 10.0.0.0/24
- Subscription: Select your subscription
- Resource group: Select Create new and enter myResourceGroup
- Location: East US
Click + New. In the Search the Marketplace box, type Virtual network. Click Virtual network when it appears in the search results.
In the Virtual network blade, select Classic in the Select a deployment model box, and then click Create.
In the Create virtual network blade, enter, or select values for the following settings, then click Create:
- Name: myVnet2
- Address space: 10.1.0.0/16
- Subnet name: default
- Subnet address range: 10.1.0.0/24
- Subscription: Select your subscription
- Resource group: Select Use existing and select myResourceGroup
- Location: East US
In the Search resources box at the top of the portal, type myResourceGroup. Click myResourceGroup when it appears in the search results. A blade appears for the myresourcegroup resource group. The resource group holds the two virtual networks created in previous steps.
Click myVNet1.
In the myVnet1 blade that appears, click Peerings from the vertical list of options on the left side of the blade.
In the myVnet1 - Peerings blade that appeared, click + Add
In the Add peering blade that appears, enter, or select the following options, then click OK:
- Name: myVnet1ToMyVnet2
- Virtual network deployment model: Select Classic.
- Subscription: Select your subscription
- Virtual network: Click Choose a virtual network, then click myVnet2.
- Allow virtual network access: Ensure that Enabled is selected. No other settings are used in this tutorial. To learn about all peering settings, read Manage virtual network peerings.
After clicking OK in the previous step, the Add peering blade closes and you see the myVnet1 - Peerings blade again. After a few seconds, the peering you created appears in the blade. Connected is listed in the PEERING STATUS column for the myVnet1ToMyVnet2 peering you created.

The peering is now established. Any Azure resources you create in either virtual network are now able to communicate with each other through their IP addresses. If you're using default Azure name resolution for the virtual networks, the resources in the virtual networks aren't able to resolve names across the virtual networks. If you want to resolve names across virtual networks in a peering, you must create your own DNS server. Learn how to set up Name resolution using your own DNS server.
Optional: Though creating virtual machines isn't covered in this tutorial, you can create a virtual machine in each virtual network and connect from one virtual machine to the other, to validate connectivity.
Optional: To delete the resources that you create in this tutorial, complete the steps in the Delete resources section of this article.

Create peering - Azure CLI

Complete the following steps using the Azure classic CLI and the Azure CLI. You can complete the steps from the Azure Cloud Shell, by just selecting the Try it button in any of the following steps, or by installing the classic CLI and CLI and running the commands on your local computer.

If using the Cloud Shell, skip to step 2, because the Cloud Shell automatically signs you in to Azure. Open a command session and sign in to Azure using the azure login command.
Run the CLI in Service Management mode by entering the azure config mode asm command.

Enter the following command to create the virtual network (classic):

azure network vnet create --vnet myVnet2 --address-space 10.1.0.0 --cidr 16 --location "East US"

Execute the following bash CLI script using the CLI, not the classic CLI. For options on running bash CLI scripts on Windows computer, see Install the Azure CLI on Windows.

#!/bin/bash

# Create a resource group.
az group create \
  --name myResourceGroup \
  --location eastus

# Create the virtual network (Resource Manager).
az network vnet create \
  --name myVnet1 \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --location eastus \
  --address-prefix 10.0.0.0/16

Create a virtual network peering between the two virtual networks created through the different deployment models using the CLI. Copy the following script to a text editor on your PC. Replace <subscription id> with your subscription ID. If you don't know your subscription ID, enter the az account show command. The value for id in the output is your subscription ID. Paste the modified script in to your CLI session, and then press Enter.

# Get the ID for VNet1.
vnet1Id=$(az network vnet show \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name myVnet1 \
  --query id --out tsv)

# Peer VNet1 to VNet2.
az network vnet peering create \
  --name myVnet1ToMyVnet2 \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --vnet-name myVnet1 \
  --remote-vnet-id /subscriptions/<subscription id>/resourceGroups/Default-Networking/providers/Microsoft.ClassicNetwork/virtualNetworks/myVnet2 \
  --allow-vnet-access

After the script executes, review the peering for the virtual network (Resource Manager). Copy the following command, paste it in your CLI session, and then press Enter:
```
az network vnet peering list \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --vnet-name myVnet1 \
  --output table
```
The output shows Connected in the PeeringState column.

Any Azure resources you create in either virtual network are now able to communicate with each other through their IP addresses. If you're using default Azure name resolution for the virtual networks, the resources in the virtual networks aren't able to resolve names across the virtual networks. If you want to resolve names across virtual networks in a peering, you must create your own DNS server. Learn how to set up Name resolution using your own DNS server.
Optional: Though creating virtual machines isn't covered in this tutorial, you can create a virtual machine in each virtual network and connect from one virtual machine to the other, to validate connectivity.
Optional: To delete the resources that you create in this tutorial, complete the steps in Delete resources in this article.

Create peering - PowerShell

Install the latest version of the PowerShell Azure and Az modules. If you're new to Azure PowerShell, see Azure PowerShell overview.
Start a PowerShell session.
In PowerShell, sign in to Azure by entering the Add-AzureAccount command. The account you sign in with must have the necessary permissions to create a virtual network peering. For a list of permissions, see Virtual network peering permissions.
To create a virtual network (classic) with PowerShell, you must create a new, or modify an existing, network configuration file. Learn how to export, update, and import network configuration files. The file should include the following VirtualNetworkSite element for the virtual network used in this tutorial:
```
<VirtualNetworkSite name="myVnet2" Location="East US">
  <AddressSpace>
    <AddressPrefix>10.1.0.0/16</AddressPrefix>
  </AddressSpace>
  <Subnets>
    <Subnet name="default">
      <AddressPrefix>10.1.0.0/24</AddressPrefix>
    </Subnet>
  </Subnets>
</VirtualNetworkSite>
```
Warning

Importing a changed network configuration file can cause changes to existing virtual networks (classic) in your subscription. Ensure you only add the previous virtual network and that you don't change or remove any existing virtual networks from your subscription.
Sign in to Azure to create the virtual network (Resource Manager) by entering the Connect-AzAccount command. The account you sign in with must have the necessary permissions to create a virtual network peering. For a list of permissions, see Virtual network peering permissions.

Create a resource group and a virtual network (Resource Manager). Copy the script, paste it into PowerShell, and then press Enter.

# Create a resource group.
  New-AzResourceGroup -Name myResourceGroup -Location eastus

# Create the virtual network (Resource Manager).
  $vnet1 = New-AzVirtualNetwork `
  -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup `
  -Name 'myVnet1' `
  -AddressPrefix '10.0.0.0/16' `
  -Location eastus

Create a virtual network peering between the two virtual networks created through the different deployment models. Copy the following script to a text editor on your PC. Replace <subscription id> with your subscription ID. If you don't know your subscription ID, enter the Get-AzSubscription command to view it. The value for Id in the returned output is your subscription ID. To execute the script, copy the modified script from your text editor, then right-click in your PowerShell session, and then press Enter.
```
# Peer VNet1 to VNet2.
Add-AzVirtualNetworkPeering `
  -Name myVnet1ToMyVnet2 `
  -VirtualNetwork $vnet1 `
  -RemoteVirtualNetworkId /subscriptions/<subscription Id>/resourceGroups/Default-Networking/providers/Microsoft.ClassicNetwork/virtualNetworks/myVnet2
```
After the script executes, review the peering for the virtual network (Resource Manager). Copy the following command, paste it in your PowerShell session, and then press Enter:
```
Get-AzVirtualNetworkPeering `
  -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup `
  -VirtualNetworkName myVnet1 `
  | Format-Table VirtualNetworkName, PeeringState
```
The output shows Connected in the PeeringState column.

Any Azure resources you create in either virtual network are now able to communicate with each other through their IP addresses. If you're using default Azure name resolution for the virtual networks, the resources in the virtual networks aren't able to resolve names across the virtual networks. If you want to resolve names across virtual networks in a peering, you must create your own DNS server. Learn how to set up Name resolution using your own DNS server.
Optional: Though creating virtual machines isn't covered in this tutorial, you can create a virtual machine in each virtual network and connect from one virtual machine to the other, to validate connectivity.
Optional: To delete the resources that you create in this tutorial, complete the steps in Delete resources in this article.

Delete resources

When you've finished this tutorial, you might want to delete the resources you created in the tutorial, so you don't incur usage charges. Deleting a resource group also deletes all resources that are in the resource group.

Azure portal

In the portal search box, enter myResourceGroup. In the search results, click myResourceGroup.
On the myResourceGroup blade, click the Delete icon.
To confirm the deletion, in the TYPE THE RESOURCE GROUP NAME box, enter myResourceGroup, and then click Delete.

Azure CLI

Use the Azure CLI to delete the virtual network (Resource Manager) with the following command:
```
az group delete --name myResourceGroup --yes
```
Use the classic CLI to delete the virtual network (classic) with the following commands:
```
azure config mode asm

azure network vnet delete --vnet myVnet2 --quiet
```

PowerShell

Enter the following command to delete the virtual network (Resource Manager):
```
Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name myResourceGroup -Force
```
To delete the virtual network (classic) with PowerShell, you must modify an existing network configuration file. Learn how to export, update, and import network configuration files. Remove the following VirtualNetworkSite element for the virtual network used in this tutorial:
```
<VirtualNetworkSite name="myVnet2" Location="East US">
  <AddressSpace>
    <AddressPrefix>10.1.0.0/16</AddressPrefix>
  </AddressSpace>
  <Subnets>
    <Subnet name="default">
      <AddressPrefix>10.1.0.0/24</AddressPrefix>
    </Subnet>
  </Subnets>
</VirtualNetworkSite>
```
Warning

Importing a changed network configuration file can cause changes to existing virtual networks (classic) in your subscription. Ensure you only remove the previous virtual network and that you don't change or remove any other existing virtual networks from your subscription.

Next steps

Thoroughly familiarize yourself with important virtual network peering constraints and behaviors before creating a virtual network peering for production use.
Learn about all virtual network peering settings.
Learn how to create a hub and spoke network topology with virtual network peering.

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