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4.1.3.2. Configure Azure Bastion

💡 First Principle: Azure Bastion provides secure and seamless RDP/SSH connectivity to virtual machines directly from the Azure portal over SSL, fundamentally eliminating the need to expose VMs to the public internet for administrative access.

Scenario: Your security policy strictly prohibits assigning public IP addresses to production Virtual Machines to minimize their exposure to the internet. However, administrators still need to securely access these VMs via RDP/SSH for management and troubleshooting.

What It Is: Azure Bastion is a fully managed PaaS service that allows you to connect to your Azure Virtual Machines using RDP or SSH directly through your browser, without needing a public IP address on the VM.

How Azure Bastion Works:
  • Deployed into a dedicated subnet (AzureBastionSubnet) within your Virtual Network.
  • Functions as a jump server, proxying RDP/SSH sessions from the Azure portal to your VMs.
  • No public IP addresses are required on the VMs themselves.
Key Benefits:
  • Enhanced Security: VMs remain private—no public IPs, no direct internet exposure, and a reduced attack surface.
  • Simplified Connectivity: Access VMs securely from any browser, eliminating the need for VPNs or RDP/SSH clients.
  • Hardened Access: As a managed service, Bastion is maintained and patched by Microsoft.
  • Logging & Auditing: Integrates with Azure Monitor for connection logging and auditing.
Visual: Azure Bastion Secure Connectivity
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⚠️ Common Pitfall: Not allocating a large enough address space for the AzureBastionSubnet. It requires a minimum of a /26 prefix.

Key Trade-Offs:
  • Cost vs. Security: Azure Bastion is a paid service. While it adds to the monthly bill, the security benefit of not exposing VMs to the internet far outweighs the cost for most production environments.

Reflection Question: How does Azure Bastion, by providing secure, just-in-time, browser-based RDP/SSH access to VMs without public IP exposure, fundamentally enable secure administrative connectivity while significantly reducing the attack surface for your Azure Virtual Machines?