Virtual Network

Introduction

Azure Virtual Network (VNet) is the core networking service for isolating and routing Azure resources in private IP address spaces. It lets you define address ranges, create subnets, and control network behavior for applications. Virtual networks are commonly used to model secure, segmented network topologies in cloud environments. For more information, see What is Azure Virtual Network?.

LocalStack for Azure provides a local environment to build and test Azure networking resources, such as virtual networks, private endpoints, and private DNS zones. The supported APIs are available on our API Coverage section, which provides information on the extent of Virtual Network’s integration with LocalStack.

Getting started

This guide is designed for users new to Virtual Network and assumes basic knowledge of the Azure CLI and our azlocal wrapper script.

Launch LocalStack using your preferred method. For more information, see Introduction to LocalStack for Azure. Once the container is running, enable Azure CLI interception by running:

azlocal start-interception

This command points the az CLI away from the public Azure management REST API and toward the LocalStack for Azure emulator API.

To revert this configuration, run:

azlocal stop-interception

This reconfigures the az CLI to send commands to the official Azure management REST API.

Create a resource group

Create a resource group for your networking resources:

az group create \
  --name rg-vnet-demo \
  --location westeurope

Output

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-vnet-demo",
  "location": "westeurope",
  "managedBy": null,
  "name": "rg-vnet-demo",
  "properties": {
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded"
  },
  ...
}

Create and inspect a virtual network

Create a virtual network with a 10.0.0.0/16 address space:

az network vnet create \
  --name vnet-doc78 \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo \
  --location westeurope \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.0.0/16

Output

{
  "newVNet": {
    "name": "vnet-doc78",
    "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-vnet-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-doc78",
    "location": "westeurope",
    "addressSpace": {
      "addressPrefixes": ["10.0.0.0/16"]
    },
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    ...
  }
}

Get the virtual network (VNet) details:

az network vnet show \
  --name vnet-doc78 \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo

Output

{
  "name": "vnet-doc78",
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-vnet-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-doc78",
  "location": "westeurope",
  "addressSpace": {
    "addressPrefixes": ["10.0.0.0/16"]
  },
  "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
  ...
}

Create and manage subnets

Create a subnet:

az network vnet subnet create \
  --name subnet1 \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo \
  --vnet-name vnet-doc78 \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.1.0/24

Output

{
  "name": "subnet1",
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-vnet-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-doc78/subnets/subnet1",
  "addressPrefix": "10.0.1.0/24",
  "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
  ...
}

Retrieve new subnet details and list all VNet subnets

az network vnet subnet show \
  --name subnet1 \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo \
  --vnet-name vnet-doc78

az network vnet subnet list \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo \
  --vnet-name vnet-doc78

Output

{
  "name": "subnet1",
  "addressPrefix": "10.0.1.0/24",
  ...
}
[
  {
    "name": "subnet1",
    "addressPrefix": "10.0.1.0/24",
    ...
  }
]

Add a second subnet to the virtual network, remove the first , and relist all subnets:

az network vnet subnet create \
  --name subnet2 \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo \
  --vnet-name vnet-doc78 \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.2.0/24

az network vnet subnet delete \
  --name subnet1 \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo \
  --vnet-name vnet-doc78

az network vnet subnet list \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo \
  --vnet-name vnet-doc78

Output

{
  "name": "subnet2",
  "addressPrefix": "10.0.2.0/24",
  ...
}
[
  {
    "name": "subnet2",
    "addressPrefix": "10.0.2.0/24",
    ...
  }
]

Update virtual network properties

Update DNS servers and tags on the VNet:

az network vnet update \
  --name vnet-doc78 \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo \
  --dns-servers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 \
  --set tags.environment=test tags.project=localstack

Output

{
  "name": "vnet-doc78",
  "dhcpOptions": {
    "dnsServers": ["8.8.8.8", "8.8.4.4"]
  },
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-vnet-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-doc78",
  "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
  "tags": {
    "environment": "test",
    "project": "localstack"
  },
  ...
}

Delete and verify

Delete the VNet and validate that no virtual networks remain in the resource group:

az network vnet delete \
  --name vnet-doc78 \
  --resource-group rg-vnet-demo

az network vnet list --resource-group rg-vnet-demo

Output

[]

Features

The Virtual Network emulator supports the following features:

• Virtual networks: Create, update, delete, list, and get virtual networks with configurable address spaces, DNS servers, and DDoS protection settings.
• Subnets: Full lifecycle management of subnets within virtual networks, including address prefix allocation, service endpoint configuration, and NSG/route table associations.
• Network security groups: Create and manage network security groups with custom security rules. Default rules (AllowVnetInBound, AllowAzureLoadBalancerInBound, DenyAllInBound, AllowVnetOutBound, AllowInternetOutBound, DenyAllOutBound) are automatically provisioned.
• Route tables: Create and manage route tables with custom route entries supporting next hop types such as VirtualAppliance, VirtualNetworkGateway, Internet, and VnetLocal.
• Public IP addresses: Create and manage public IP addresses with Static or Dynamic allocation methods, Standard or Basic SKUs, and availability zone configuration.
• Public IP prefixes: Create and manage public IP prefixes with configurable prefix lengths and SKU settings.
• NAT gateways: Create and manage NAT gateways with public IP address and public IP prefix associations.
• Network interfaces: Create and manage network interfaces with IP configurations, dynamic IP allocation from subnets, accelerated networking, and IP forwarding settings.
• Private DNS zones: Create and manage private DNS zones with virtual network links, registration enablement, and A record sets.
• Private endpoints: Create and manage private endpoints with automatic network interface provisioning, private link service connections, and private DNS zone group integration.
• Bastion hosts: Create and manage bastion hosts with IP configuration validation, SKU selection (Basic, Standard, Premium), and scale unit configuration.

Limitations

• No network traffic routing: The emulator does not route network traffic or enforce security rules. Resources are stored and returned with correct metadata, but no packet-level behavior is applied.
• IPv6: IPv6 fields are accepted in requests but are not functional. All IP allocation operates on IPv4 address spaces only.
• Private DNS record types: Only A record sets are supported in private DNS zones. Other record types (CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV, AAAA) are not available.
• Public IP addresses: Addresses are locally generated and do not represent routable IPs on the public internet.
• Bastion host connectivity: Feature flags such as tunneling, file copy, and Kerberos authentication are stored as configuration but do not provide actual connectivity.
• VNet peering: Virtual network peering is not supported.
• VPN and ExpressRoute gateways: VPN gateways and ExpressRoute circuits are not implemented.
• Load balancers: Azure Load Balancer resources are not implemented.
• Application gateways: Application Gateway resources are not implemented.
• Network watchers: Network Watcher and flow log resources are not implemented.
• No data persistence: Network resources are not persisted and are lost when the emulator is stopped or restarted.

Samples

The following samples demonstrate how to use Virtual Network with LocalStack for Azure:

• Function App and Service Bus
• Web App and Cosmos DB for MongoDB API

API Coverage

Operation ▲	Implemented ▼

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