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Best practices for Global Secure Access remote network resilience

This article provides actionable recommendations to enhance the resilience of remote networks. To ensure optimal deployment and performance of Global Secure Access remote network connectivity, follow these best practices:

Configure redundant tunnels and failovers

Configure multiple Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) tunnels from the customer premises equipment (CPE) to different Global Secure Access edges or POPs.

Zone redundancy

The Zone redundancy option creates two IPsec tunnels in different availability zones, but within the same Azure region.

Screenshot of the Connectivity step, with the Add a link pane showing the Zone redundancy menu option.

Geographic redundancy

You can also achieve redundancy by creating a new remote network in a different geographic region. You can use the same CPE configuration to set up IPsec tunnels in the secondary remote network.

Screenshot of the list of remote networks in multiple geographic regions.

Use the CPE's management console to assign weights to these IPsec tunnels and decide how to route traffic through them.

Tunnel weighting Traffic routing
Equal split active-active
Primary/secondary active-standby

Dynamic route learning

Use Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for dynamic route learning. If BGP isn't supported on the device, set up static routes with appropriate metrics.

Set up CPE according to your desired security posture

Configure CPE based on whether your business prioritizes security or productivity.

Prioritize security

If you prioritize security, prevent user traffic from going to the destination without first going through Global Secure Access. To do so, statically route traffic over the IPsec tunnel with Global Secure Access without setting up the default route.

Prioritize productivity

If you prioritize productivity, set up a default route for traffic. This way, if a Global Secure Access VPN gateway or backend service goes down, user traffic continues directly through the default route.

Important

Recommendation: Set up a default route and configure an IP SLA Layer 7 health probe to monitor the endpoint.

To set up a default route:

  1. Configure an IP SLA Layer 7 health probe to monitor the endpoint http://m365.remote-network.edgediagnostic.globalsecureaccess.microsoft.com:6544/ping. For guidance, see How to create a remote network with Global Secure Access.
  2. Alternatively, set the probe to monitor IP address 198.18.1.101. Statically send these IP addresses over the Global Secure Access IPsec tunnel from your CPE. We're adding this IP address to the Microsoft 365 BGP route advertisement.

Note

These endpoints are accessible only through Global Secure Access remote network connectivity.

Configure monitoring and observability

Monitor traffic logs and remote network health events by exporting them to your Log Analytics workspace. Set up Azure Monitor alert rules to track the health of your workspace. For more information, see What are remote network health logs?.