Welcome to my next blog post! I will discuss the latest developments in Public IP addresses, mainly focusing on their default zone redundancy across Azure. This topic will be explored in great detail, so stay tuned for the in-depth exploration!
What is the change in the Public IP address?
Microsoft recently made a significant announcement regarding Azure Standard Public IPs. From now on, all Standard Public IPs will be made zone-redundant by default. This means that whether you are creating a new Standard Public IP or using an existing one without specified zones, you will automatically benefit from this feature at no additional cost. As a result, Microsoft is transitioning away from non-zonal Standard IPs and ensuring that Public IPs without specified zones are zone-redundant by default, free of charge, in Azure regions where zones are supported. It’s important to note that the pricing for Standard Public IPs will remain unchanged as specified on the Public IP pricing page.
Public IP addresses come in two types of SKUs: Standard and Basic. Standard SKU Public IPs can be created in three configurations—non-zonal, zonal, or zone-redundant—and are available in regions supporting availability zones.
On the other hand, Basic SKU Public IPs do not have any zones and are created as non-zonal by default. It’s important to note that once a public IP is created, its availability zone cannot be changed. Therefore, it’s crucial to carefully consider the desired configuration before creating a Public IP to ensure that it meets the specific requirements of your network setup.
| Configuration Values | Description |
| Zonal | A zonal IP address is linked to particular availability zones within a region and is contingent upon that zone’s health status. |
| Zone-Redundant | A zone-redundant IP address is provisioned in every availability zone within a region, ensuring it can withstand failure in any single zone. |
| Non-Zonal | Azure assigns a non-zonal public IP address to a specific zone, but it does not provide redundancy across multiple zones. |
All public IP addresses are initially created as non-zonal in regions without availability zones. If a region is later upgraded to include availability zones, the public IP addresses created in that region will remain non-zonal. This means the existing public IP addresses will not be associated with a specific availability zone even after the upgrade. Microsoft is updating Standard non-zonal IPs to be zone-redundant by default on a region-by-region basis.
What are the actions required by Azure consumers?
- If you already have zone-redundant IPs, they will continue to stay zone-redundant. This applies to all your Standard public IPs, whether you created them today or years ago.
- If you have Standard Public IPs with no zone parameters, you do not need to take any action. Your IPs are already zone-redundant in the specified regions.
- If you upgrade your Basic SKU Public IP to Standard SKU, this announcement will make it zone-redundant. Apart from the upgrade, no extra steps or actions are needed.
Final Notes:
With this new update, as you transition your workloads to zone-redundant architectures, you now have the flexibility to maintain your current IP address without needing re-IP or any changes to ensure zone-redundancy for your Public IP resources. This simplifies how you and your customers manage things, reducing the need for frequent updates to IP lists for firewalls. It makes overall network management easier.
Santhosh has over 15 years of experience in the IT organization. Working as a Cloud Infrastructure Architect and has a wide range of expertise in Microsoft technologies, with a specialization in public & private cloud services for enterprise customers. My varied background includes work in cloud computing, virtualization, storage, networks, automation and DevOps.
