{"id":5772,"date":"2014-10-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-16T08:10:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:10:58","slug":"multiple-vm-nics-and-network-virtual-appliances-in-azure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/multiple-vm-nics-and-network-virtual-appliances-in-azure\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple VM NICs and Network Virtual Appliances in Azure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At TechEd Europe 2014, we announced support for multiple Network Interface (NICs) in Azure VMs, along with several important partnership in bringing Network Virtual Appliances to Azure, notably Citrix Netscaler and Riverbed appliances.  Many network virtual appliances require multiple NICs. Now you can create  multiple NICs on your Azure VMs. With multiple NICs you can better manage your network traffic. You can also isolate traffic between the frontend NIC and backend NICs, or separating data plane traffic from the management plane communication. Here’s an example of a VM with 3 NICs:<\/p>\n\n\n

\"graphical<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How to create a VM with multiple NICs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The instructions below will help you create a VM with 3 NICs: a default NIC and two additional NICs. The configuration steps use the virtual network with 3 subnets: Frontend (10.1.0.0\/24), Midtier (10.1.1.0\/24), and Backend (10.1.2.0\/24) shown below as an example \u201cThreeTier-VNet\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"diagram<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The configuration cmdlets below use the latest Azure PowerShell release. Please download and configure Azure PowerShell as described here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Select a VM image from Azure VM image gallery:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n$image = Get-AzureVMImage -ImageName \"a699494373c04fc0bc8f2bb1389d6106__Windows-Server-2012-R2-201408.01-en.us-127GB.vhd\"\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
2. Create an Azure VM configuration and the default administrator login:<\/p>\n\n\n
\n$vm = New-AzureVMConfig -Name \"MultiNicVM\" -InstanceSize \"ExtraLarge\" -Image $image.ImageName \u2013AvailabilitySetName \u201cMyAVSet\u201d\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
3. Specify the subnet and IP address of the default NIC. Note that the SubnetNames parameter must be the name of one of the subnets in your virtual network. We are using the Frontend subnet in this example.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nSet-AzureSubnet -SubnetNames \"Frontend\" -VM $vm\nSet-AzureStaticVNetIP -IPAddress \"10.1.0.10\" -VM $vm\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
4. Add additional NICs to the VM configuration. Similar to step (3), the SubnetName and StaticVNetIPAddress must correspond to the subnet definition of the virtual network. The interface name must be unique for the VM, but does not represent the names of the NICs inside the VM.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nAdd-AzureNetworkInterfaceConfig -Name \"NIC1\" -SubnetName \"Midtier\" -StaticVNetIPAddress \"10.1.1.11\" -VM $vm\nAdd-AzureNetworkInterfaceConfig -Name \"NIC2\" -SubnetName \"Backend\" -StaticVNetIPAddress \"10.1.2.22\" -VM $vm\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
5. After these steps, we are ready to create the VM. You will need to create the VM in the virtual network that contains the subnet names and IP addresses used above:<\/p>\n\n\n
\nNew-AzureVM -ServiceName \"MultiNIC-CS\" \u2013VNetName \u201cThreeTier-VNet\u201d \u2013VM $vm\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Multiple NIC FAQs & Constraints:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The current release of Multiple NIC feature has the following requirements and constraints:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Is the feature in GA or preview?<\/p>\n\n\n\n