Configuring the SharePoint Online privileges

9.Introducing virtual machines in Azure

To mimic an on-premises deployment with a multi-VM workload as needed here, virtual networks are also required. This is where Azure Virtual Networks come into play. Azure Virtual Networks²⁹ let you provision and manage virtual networks (VNET) in Azure. A VNET provides the ability to create a logical boundary and place VMs inside it. VNET also provides the capability of connecting Azure Cloud Services³⁰ (VMs, web roles, and worker roles).

Azure Virtual Network provides control over the network topology, including configuration of IP addresses, routing tables and security policies. A VNET has its own private address space. The address space is IPv4 only (but could be extended to IPv6 in a future release).

Note Azure Virtual Network also allows to securely extend on-premises networks into the cloud. With the ability to assign a private address range for its VNET, you can indeed treat it as an extension of your own corporate private network address space by establishing appropriate gates (VPN gateway) between your on-premises corporate private network and virtual network(s) in Microsoft Azure.

For that purpose, Azure Virtual Network enables to set up secure site-to-site connectivity between the organization’s corporate VPN gateway and Azure, and then to connect the organization’s on-premises corporate network to the organization’s Azure tenant by using a VPN gateway along with the industry-standard IPsec protocol. 

With such a capability, IT administrators can easily create a logically isolated private environment in Azure, and connect it to the organization’s on-premises IT infrastructure by using a secure VPN tunnel. Once set up, the isolated Azure environment can be viewed as a natural extension of the on-premises corporate network.

To synthetize, Azure Virtual Network allows you to create private network(s) of VMs in your Azure tenant environment that you can assign IP addresses to (and then optionally connect to your data center through a VPN gateway). Using this method, you can seamlessly connect on-premises (virtual) machines to VMs running in your Azure tenant.

The fundamental requirements for deploying Moodle on VM(s) in Azure differ very little from deploying it in VMs (and, to some extent, physical machines) on-premises.

10.Understanding the ongoing costs of virtual machines in Azure

To minimize the cost of running the test lab virtual machines, you can do one of the following:

• 
  Create the test lab environment and perform your needed testing and demonstration as quickly as possible. When complete, delete the test lab virtual machines from the VIRTUAL MACHINES page of the Azure management portal.
  
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  Shut down your test lab virtual machines into a de-allocated state from the VIRTUAL MACHINES page of the Azure management portal as covered later in this document. However, you should start your virtual machines in a specific order.