How to replace Route Tables by using Azure Route Server?

Question

How do I setup Azure Route Server to replace Route Tables that route traffic to an Azure Firewall instance?

We have a hybrid setup and our on-premise location is connected to our Azure environment via Express Route. We have an Azure Network Gateway (type is ExpressRoute) to exchange routes.
The Network Gateway is connected to our Hub Vnet and we have an Azure Firewall connected to the Hub.
For each landingzone we deploy, we also deploy a spoke vnet plus peering to the hub, but also a nsg and route table. The route table is configured to send traffic to our firewall. I am looking into Azure Route Server to see if we can get rid of the Route Tables that only routes traffic to firewall.

Would it be enough to deploy the Route Server and connect it to the hub vnet and enable branch-to-branch? Or can/do I configure specifically to have all traffic go through the firewall first?

Answer 1

@Bram vd Klinkenberg ,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform. Thank you for reaching out & I hope you are doing well.

I understand that you would like to replace Route Tables pointing to Azure Firewall with a Azure Route Server.

I am afraid this won't be possible.

If you want to route the traffic to Azure Firewall without manually adding routes, you should consider using a vWAN with secured virtual hub with Private Traffic Routing Intent enabled.

See : Virtual WAN Hub routing intent and routing policies

Azure Route Server seamlessly integrates with NVAs that can establish BGP Peering with it.

• Since Azure Firewall does not have the capability to advertise routes over BGP, Azure Route Server does not offer Azure Firewall integration.
• Should you deploy a different 3rd party NVA capable of advertising BGP prefixes, then you can peer Azure Route Server and network virtual appliance (NVA) and make traffic route via the NVA without needing UDRs.
• See : How does Azure Route Server work?

Kindly let us know if this helps or you need further assistance on this issue.

Thanks,

Kapil

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