Important Update! Microsoft has recently reversed their decision to support DirectAccess in Microsoft Azure. The Microsoft Server Software Support for Microsoft Azure Vitual Machines document has once again been revised to indicate that DirectAccess is formally unsuported in Azure.
Update: Detailed guidance for deploying DirectAccess in Azure can be found here.
This is great news for organizations moving their infrastructure to the Microsoft Azure public cloud! Microsoft recently made some important changes to their published support statement for server software running on Azure virtual machines. Although no formal announcement was made, they quietly removed DirectAccess from the list of unsupported roles for Windows Server 2012 R2.
I’ve performed some limited testing with DirectAccess using Resource Manager VMs in Microsoft Azure and it appears to be stable. In addition, some of the challenges I encountered previously when implementing DirectAccess in Azure using Classic VMs have now been resolved. I’ll be publishing some guidance for deploying DirectAccess in Azure soon.
Additional Resources
Deploying DirectAccess in Microsoft Azure
Implementing DirectAccess in Windows Server 2016
Fundamentals of Microsoft Azure 2nd Edition
Microsoft Azure Security Infrastructure
DirectAccess Multisite with Azure Traffic Manager
