Network Security Group Rules. How often do you get asked questions about network security group rules? If you don’t already have them, you’ll want to start building out some basic ones now.
Network security groups (NSGs) are a way to control access to your network resources. They allow you to define policies that determine who has access to what resources.
The configuration is relatively straightforward. However, there are some gotchas you should be aware of. For example, a common question is, “What happens if I have multiple security groups in my environment?” If you have multiple NSGs, they will all run in parallel. There is no “primary” or “master” NSG.
You can control which order they apply with the order property.
If you want to allow a new rule to apply to an existing resource, the new rule must have a higher priority than the existing rule. The priority property dictates this for individual rules; the priority of an NSG determines which rules will be run first in the event of a conflict.
What happens if someone deletes an NSG?
It will still exist as long as there are resources that exist within it. If you delete the last remaining resource that exists within an NSG, the NSG will automatically be deleted as well.
Can I edit network security group rules?
Only network security group administrators can create and edit network security group rules. They can also view them from their Azure portal. Other users will not see them by default. You can change this by setting up role-based access control (RBAC). You’ll need to do this before you create any network security groups in your environment.
How do I get started?
If this is your first time configuring network security groups, start by creating a set of basic rules that allow access to your resources through a single NSG. As your environment grows, you can start to break things up into multiple NSGs based on need and organizational structure (if necessary).
How would I go about doing this?
If you’re just getting started with Azure networking, here are some initial steps that could help:
1=Create an Azure subscription if you don’t already have one. 2=Create a virtual network. 3=Create an Internet gateway. 4=Create subnets. 5=Create storage accounts. 6=Create a service bus. 7=Create load balancers. 8=Create virtual machines.
9=Create network security groups for each of your workloads and workload groups after configuring them in each of these steps above.
10= The most important step is to create a central team that handles network security group administration. So that everyone else isn’t stepping on each other’s toes when making changes and updates to your environment. Once you’ve created all of these components, you can start to define trends and patterns that help you predict the needs of future workloads.
How do you prepare for the unexpected?
It’s impossible to know what will happen in the future. To be able to react quickly, you should create a set of basic network security group rules that allow access to your resources through a single NSG. This is your secondary plan. In the event that something goes wrong, you can turn this NSG on before setting up a new one.
Conclusion
Network security groups are a great way to control access to your network resources. By understanding the basics, you can save yourself time and money as you scale.
As with all things Azure, there is a lot of nuance and complexity beneath the surface. You should always consult Microsoft documentation before making changes to your environment.