Connect a virtual network to an ExpressRoute circuit using Azure PowerShell

This article helps you link virtual networks (VNets) to Azure ExpressRoute circuits by using the Resource Manager deployment model and PowerShell. Virtual networks can either be in the same subscription or part of another subscription. This tutorial also shows you how to update a virtual network link.

Prerequisites

• Review the prerequisites, routing requirements, and workflows before you begin configuration.

• You must have an active ExpressRoute circuit.

  • Follow the instructions to create an ExpressRoute circuit and have the circuit enabled by your connectivity provider.
  • Ensure that you have Azure private peering configured for your circuit. See the configure routing article for routing instructions.
  • Ensure that Azure private peering gets configured and establishes BGP peering between your network and Azure for end-to-end connectivity.
  • Ensure that you have a virtual network and a virtual network gateway created and fully provisioned. Follow the instructions to create a virtual network gateway for ExpressRoute. A virtual network gateway for ExpressRoute uses the GatewayType ExpressRoute, not VPN.

• You can link up to 10 virtual networks to a standard ExpressRoute circuit. All virtual networks must be in the same geopolitical region when using a standard ExpressRoute circuit.

• A single virtual network can be linked to up to 16 ExpressRoute circuits. Use the steps in this article to create a new connection object for each ExpressRoute circuit you're connecting to. The ExpressRoute circuits can be in the same subscription, different subscriptions, or a mix of both.

• If you enable the ExpressRoute premium add-on, you can link virtual networks outside of the geopolitical region of the ExpressRoute circuit. The premium add-on allows you to connect more than 10 virtual networks to your ExpressRoute circuit depending on the bandwidth chosen. Check the FAQ for more details on the premium add-on.

• In order to create the connection from the ExpressRoute circuit to the target ExpressRoute virtual network gateway, the number of address spaces advertised from the local or peered virtual networks needs to be equal to or less than 200. Once the connection has been successfully created, you can add more address spaces, up to 1,000, to the local or peered virtual networks.

• Review guidance for connectivity between virtual networks over ExpressRoute.

Working with Azure PowerShell

The steps and examples in this article use Azure PowerShell Az modules. To install the Az modules locally on your computer, see Install Azure PowerShell. To learn more about the new Az module, see Introducing the new Azure PowerShell Az module. PowerShell cmdlets are updated frequently. If you are not running the latest version, the values specified in the instructions may fail. To find the installed versions of PowerShell on your system, use the Get-Module -ListAvailable Az cmdlet.

Connect a virtual network in the same subscription to a circuit

You can connect a virtual network gateway to an ExpressRoute circuit by using the following cmdlet. Make sure that the virtual network gateway is created and is ready for linking before you run the cmdlet:

$circuit = Get-AzExpressRouteCircuit -Name "MyCircuit" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"
$gw = Get-AzVirtualNetworkGateway -Name "ExpressRouteGw" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"
$connection = New-AzVirtualNetworkGatewayConnection -Name "ERConnection" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG" -Location "China East" -VirtualNetworkGateway1 $gw -PeerId $circuit.Id -ConnectionType ExpressRoute

Connect a virtual network in a different subscription to a circuit

You can share an ExpressRoute circuit across multiple subscriptions. The following figure shows a simple schematic of how sharing works for ExpressRoute circuits across multiple subscriptions.

Each of the smaller clouds within the large cloud is used to represent subscriptions that belong to different departments within an organization. Each of the departments within the organization uses their own subscription for deploying their services--but they can share a single ExpressRoute circuit to connect back to your on-premises network. A single department (in this example: IT) can own the ExpressRoute circuit. Other subscriptions within the organization may use the ExpressRoute circuit.

Administration - circuit owners and circuit users

The 'circuit owner' is an authorized Power User of the ExpressRoute circuit resource. The circuit owner can create authorizations that can be redeemed by 'circuit users'. Circuit users are owners of virtual network gateways that aren't within the same subscription as the ExpressRoute circuit. Circuit users can redeem authorizations (one authorization per virtual network).

The circuit owner has the power to modify and revoke authorizations at any time. Revoking an authorization results in all link connections being deleted from the subscription whose access was revoked.

Circuit owner operations

To create an authorization

The circuit owner creates an authorization, which creates an authorization key to be used by a circuit user to connect their virtual network gateways to the ExpressRoute circuit. An authorization is valid for only one connection.

The following cmdlet snippet shows how to create an authorization:

$circuit = Get-AzExpressRouteCircuit -Name "MyCircuit" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"
Add-AzExpressRouteCircuitAuthorization -ExpressRouteCircuit $circuit -Name "MyAuthorization1"
Set-AzExpressRouteCircuit -ExpressRouteCircuit $circuit

$circuit = Get-AzExpressRouteCircuit -Name "MyCircuit" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"
$auth1 = Get-AzExpressRouteCircuitAuthorization -ExpressRouteCircuit $circuit -Name "MyAuthorization1"

The response to the previous commands contains the authorization key and status:

Name                   : MyAuthorization1
Id                     : /subscriptions/&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&/resourceGroups/ERCrossSubTestRG/providers/Microsoft.Network/expressRouteCircuits/CrossSubTest/authorizations/MyAuthorization1
Etag                   : &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& 
AuthorizationKey       : ####################################
AuthorizationUseStatus : Available
ProvisioningState      : Succeeded

To review authorizations

The circuit owner can review all authorizations that are issued on a particular circuit by running the following cmdlet:

$circuit = Get-AzExpressRouteCircuit -Name "MyCircuit" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"
$authorizations = Get-AzExpressRouteCircuitAuthorization -ExpressRouteCircuit $circuit

To add authorizations

The circuit owner can add authorizations by using the following cmdlet:

$circuit = Get-AzExpressRouteCircuit -Name "MyCircuit" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"
Add-AzExpressRouteCircuitAuthorization -ExpressRouteCircuit $circuit -Name "MyAuthorization2"
Set-AzExpressRouteCircuit -ExpressRouteCircuit $circuit

$circuit = Get-AzExpressRouteCircuit -Name "MyCircuit" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"
$authorizations = Get-AzExpressRouteCircuitAuthorization -ExpressRouteCircuit $circuit

To delete authorizations

The circuit owner can revoke/delete authorizations to the user by running the following cmdlet:

Remove-AzExpressRouteCircuitAuthorization -Name "MyAuthorization2" -ExpressRouteCircuit $circuit
Set-AzExpressRouteCircuit -ExpressRouteCircuit $circuit

Circuit user operations

The circuit user needs the peer ID and an authorization key from the circuit owner. The authorization key is a GUID.

Peer ID can be checked from the following command:

Get-AzExpressRouteCircuit -Name "MyCircuit" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"

To redeem a connection authorization

The circuit user can run the following cmdlet to redeem a link authorization:

$id = "/subscriptions/********************************/resourceGroups/ERCrossSubTestRG/providers/Microsoft.Network/expressRouteCircuits/MyCircuit"    
$gw = Get-AzVirtualNetworkGateway -Name "ExpressRouteGw" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"
$connection = New-AzVirtualNetworkGatewayConnection -Name "ERConnection" -ResourceGroupName "RemoteResourceGroup" -Location "China East" -VirtualNetworkGateway1 $gw -PeerId $id -ConnectionType ExpressRoute -AuthorizationKey "^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^"

To release a connection authorization

You can release an authorization by deleting the connection that links the ExpressRoute circuit to the virtual network.

Modify a virtual network connection

You can update certain properties of a virtual network connection.

To update the connection weight

Your virtual network can be connected to multiple ExpressRoute circuits. You may receive the same prefix from more than one ExpressRoute circuit. To choose which connection to send traffic destined for this prefix, you can change RoutingWeight of a connection. Traffic is sent on the connection with the highest RoutingWeight.

$connection = Get-AzVirtualNetworkGatewayConnection -Name "MyVirtualNetworkConnection" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"
$connection.RoutingWeight = 100
Set-AzVirtualNetworkGatewayConnection -VirtualNetworkGatewayConnection $connection

The range of RoutingWeight is 0 to 32000. The default value is 0.

Clean up resources

If you no longer need the ExpressRoute connection, from the subscription where the gateway is located use the Remove-AzVirtualNetworkGatewayConnection command to remove the link between the gateway and the circuit.

Remove-AzVirtualNetworkGatewayConnection "MyConnection" -ResourceGroupName "MyRG"

Next steps

In this tutorial, you learned how to connect a virtual network to a circuit in the same subscription and in a different subscription. For more information about ExpressRoute gateways, see: ExpressRoute virtual network gateways.

To learn how to configure, route filters for Microsoft peering using PowerShell, advance to the next tutorial.