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Quickstart: Create and configure Route Server using the Azure portal

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This article helps you configure Azure Route Server to peer with a Network Virtual Appliance (NVA) in your virtual network using the Azure portal. Azure Route Server will learn routes from the NVA and program them on the virtual machines in the virtual network. Azure Route Server will also advertise the virtual network routes to the NVA. For more information, read Azure Route Server.

Diagram of Route Server deployment environment using the Azure Portal.

Important

Azure Route Servers created before November 1, 2021, that don't have a public IP address associated, are deployed with the public preview offering. The public preview offering is not backed by General Availability SLA and support. To deploy Azure Route Server with the General Availability offering, and to achieve General Availability SLA and support, please delete and recreate your Route Server.

Prerequisites

Create a Route Server

Sign in to your Azure account and select your subscription

From a browser, navigate to the Azure portal and sign in with your Azure account.

Create a Route Server

  1. Sign in to Azure portal, search and select Route Server.

  2. Select + Create new route server.

    Screenshot of Route Server landing page.

  3. On the Create a Route Server page, enter, or select the required information.

    Screenshot of create Route Server page.

    Settings Value
    Subscription Select the Azure subscription you want to use to deploy the Route Server.
    Resource group Select a resource group to create the Route Server in. If you don't have an existing resource group, you can create a new one.
    Name Enter a name for the Route Server.
    Region Select the region the Route Server will be created in. Select the same region as the virtual network you created previously to see the virtual network in the drop-down.
    Virtual Network Select the virtual network in which the Route Server will be created. You can create a new virtual network or use an existing virtual network. If you're using an existing virtual network, make sure the existing virtual network has enough space for a minimum of a /27 subnet to accommodate the Route Server subnet requirement. If you don't see your virtual network from the dropdown, make sure you've selected the correct Resource Group or region.
    Subnet Once you've created or select a virtual network, the subnet field will appear. This subnet is dedicated to Route Server only. Select Manage subnet configuration and create the Azure Route Server subnet. Select + Subnet and create a subnet using the following guidelines:

    - The subnet must be named RouteServerSubnet.

    - The subnet must be a minimum of /27 or larger.
    Public IP address Create a new or select an existing Standard public IP resource to assign to the Route Server. To ensure connectivity to the backend service that manages the Route Server configuration, a public IP address is required.

  4. Select Review + create, review the summary, and then select Create.

    Note

    The deployment of the Route Server will take about 20 minutes.

Set up peering with NVA

The section will help you configure BGP peering with your NVA.

  1. Go to Route Server in the Azure portal and select the Route Server you want to configure.

    Screenshot of Route Server list.

  2. Select Peers under Settings in the left navigation panel. Then select + Add to add a new peer.

    Screenshot of peers landing page.

  3. Enter the following information about your NVA peer.

    Screenshot of add peer page.

    Settings Value
    Name Give a name for the peering between your Route Server and the NVA.
    ASN Enter the Autonomous Systems Number (ASN) of your NVA.
    IPv4 Address Enter the IP address of the NVA the Route Server will communicate with to establish BGP.

  4. Select Add to add this peer.

Complete the configuration on the NVA

You'll need the Azure Route Server's peer IPs and ASN to complete the configuration on your NVA to establish a BGP session. You can obtain this information from the overview page your Route Server.

Screenshot of Route Server overview page.

Important

We recommend peering each NVA with both Route Server instances to ensure that virtual network routes are advertised over the NVA connections and achieve high availability.

Configure route exchange

If you have a virtual network gateway (ExpressRoute or VPN) in the same virtual network, you can enable branch-to-branch traffic to exchange routes between the gateway and the Route Server.

Important

The Azure VPN gateway must be configured in active-active mode and have the ASN set to 65515.

Warning

When you create or delete a Route Server in a virtual network that contains a virtual network gateway (ExpressRoute or VPN), expect downtime until the operation is complete. If you have an ExpressRoute circuit connected to the virtual network where you're creating or deleting the Route Server, the downtime doesn't affect the ExpressRoute circuit or its connections to other virtual networks.

  1. Go to the Route Server that you want to configure.

  2. Select Configuration under Settings in the left navigation panel.

  3. Select Enable for the Branch-to-Branch setting and then select Save.

    Screenshot of how to enable route exchange.

Clean up resources

If you no longer need the Azure Route Server, select Delete from the overview page to deprovision the Route Server.

Screenshot of how to delete Route Server.

Next steps

After you create the Azure Route Server, continue to learn about how Azure Route Server interacts with ExpressRoute and VPN Gateways:

Azure ExpressRoute and Azure VPN support