Default outbound access for VMs in Azure will be retired—transition existing VMs to a new method of internet access

Question

I received an email regarding outbound access retirement. In my current scenario, there are VMs running without any Public IP and connected through Virtual Network Gateway.

Will this be new change affect internet on my virtual machines?

Answer 1

Hello, @Syed Wasil Abidi !

Will the new change to outbound internet access on Sep 30th, 2025 affect my existing VMs?

Default outbound access using a default public IP address is currently set up for VMs that don't have explicit outbound access configured.

• VMs using explicit outbound access are not affected and explicit outbound access is now strongly recommended.
• Existing VMs that use default outbound access will continue to work however transitioning is strongly recommended.

You can read more on the announcement page:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/default-outbound-access-for-vms-in-azure-will-be-retired-transition-to-a-new-method-of-internet-access/

On 30 September 2025, default outbound access connectivity for virtual machines in Azure will be retired. After this date, all new VMs that require internet access will need to use explicit outbound connectivity methods such as Azure NAT Gateway, Azure Load Balancer outbound rules, or a directly attached Azure public IP address. In Azure, VMs that are created in a virtual network without a defined explicit outbound method are assigned a default public IP address that enables internet connectivity. Your existing VMs that use default outbound access will continue to work after this retirement, however, we strongly recommend transitioning to an explicit outbound method so that:

• Your workloads won’t be affected by public IP address changes.
• You have greater control over how your VMs connect to the internet.
• Your VMs use traceable IP resources that you own.

If you deploy VMs on Azure Cloud Services (extended support), this retirement won’t affect you and you don’t need to take any action. Recommended action To ensure more controllable and traceable internet connections, transition any existing VMs that rely on default outbound access to use an explicit method of connectivity.

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