📖 What is Azure Bastion?
Azure Bastion is a fully managed PaaS service that provides secure and seamless RDP and SSH access to virtual machines directly through the Azure portal. It eliminates the need to expose public IP addresses on VMs, significantly reducing the attack surface.
"If a question asks how to connect to a VM securely without using a Public IP or a Jumpbox, Bastion is your answer."
📚 Certification: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
🔑 What are the Key Concepts of Azure Bastion?
- ▸ As a fully managed PaaS service, Azure Bastion removes the operational burden of deploying and maintaining a custom jumpbox virtual machine.
- ▸ It enhances security by eliminating the need for public IP addresses on virtual machines, effectively closing common RDP and SSH attack vectors.
- ▸ Users connect to their VMs via the Azure portal using SSL (port 443), removing the requirement for specialized RDP or SSH client software.
- ▸ Bastion provides seamless, browser-based access to both Windows and Linux VMs, ensuring administrative tasks can be performed securely from any location.
🎯 How does Azure Bastion appear on the AZ-900 Exam?
You may be asked to identify the best solution for a company that needs to provide administrative access to virtual machines without exposing them to the public internet or managing a jumpbox.
A scenario might describe a security requirement to minimize the attack surface of a virtual network. Expect to choose Azure Bastion as the tool to remove public IP requirements for RDP/SSH.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How does Azure Bastion differ from a traditional Jumpbox VM?
A Jumpbox is a VM you manage yourself, requiring its own public IP and patching. Bastion is a managed PaaS service that handles the infrastructure, providing a more secure, scalable, and maintenance-free alternative.
Does Azure Bastion require the target virtual machine to have a public IP address?
No, the primary benefit of Azure Bastion is that it allows you to connect to VMs using only private IP addresses, significantly increasing security by hiding the VMs from the public internet.