Default outbound access for VMs in Azure will be retired— transition to a new method of internet access
Published date: September 29, 2023
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.
Help and support
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