Azure Managed Instance Connectivity Issue from OnPrem

Question

I have an Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with Private Link.

From on-premises (or a closed client network), Resolve-DnsName shows the privatelink.database.windows.net and the worker.vnet.database.windows.net CNAME, but does not return an IP. As a result, connections from SSMS fail with “No such host is known” or TCP port 1433 unavailable. If we force IP in the hosts file, connectivity works but its not best practice.

• What is the recommended way to resolve *.privatelink.database.windows.net names from an on-premises or closed environment? Do we need DNS forwarding to Azure DNS? Or should we use an Azure Private DNS zone linked to our VNets?
• What are the supported connectivity options for on-prem/remote clients to a Managed Instance with Private Endpoint? VPN / ExpressRoute mandatory? Any way to connect without them?

Answer 1

Hi Julie,

Typically you would use either Azure DNS Private Resolver or your own DNS server VM in Azure to resolve the private endpoint IP. On premises you would have DNS server with conditional forwarding that sends DNS queries to DNS Private Resolver/DNS VM.

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Thanks.

-TP