Microsoft has historically not supported DirectAccess running on Windows Server in the Microsoft Azure public cloud. In the past, this was due to limitations imposed by the underlying cloud infrastructure, as I documented here. When Microsoft moved from the old service manager model (classic) to the newer resource manager infrastructure, many of the issues that prevented the DirectAccess workload from being stable were resolved. There are still some fundamental limitations to deploying DirectAccess in Azure as I documented here, but for the most part it was a workable solution. In fact, Microsoft even updated their support statement for DirectAccess on Azure, quietly removing it from the unsupported roles list in July 2016.

Sadly, Microsoft has reversed their decision on the support of DirectAccess in Azure. As many of you have noticed or commented on some of my posts, Microsoft recently added clarification on support for remote access on Windows Server in Azure, explicitly indicating that DirectAccess was not included in Remote Access support.

Reference: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2721672

You’ll be glad to know that DirectAccess is indeed supported in Amazon’s public cloud infrastructure, Amazon Web Services (AWS). I’ll be drafting some guidance for deploying DirectAccess in AWS soon. Stay tuned!

Additional Resources

Azure Resource Manager vs. Classic Deployment: Understand Deployment Models and the State of your Resources

Deploying DirectAccess in Microsoft Azure

Implementing DirectAccess in Windows Server 2016 Book