--- title: "About Infoblox vNIOS for Microsoft Azure" canonical: "https://docs.infoblox.com/space/vniosazure/37650561/About%20Infoblox%20vNIOS%20for%20Microsoft%20Azure" format: markdown --- Infoblox vNIOS™ for Microsoft Azure® is a virtual Infoblox appliance designed to operate in public, private Azure clouds and on-premises, as a hybrid cloud solution. This guide provides information about the appliance and explains how to deploy it. For information about Azure, see *[https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/what-is-azure](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/what-is-azure)*. vNIOS enables you to deploy robust, manageable, and cost-effective Infoblox appliances in Azure and on premises. NIOS provides core network services and a framework for integrating all components of the modular Infoblox solution. It provides integrated, secure, and easy-to-manage DNS (Domain Name System), DHCP, and IPAM (IP address management) services. For more information about the Infoblox Grid, DNS, DHCP, and IPAM, refer to the *[Infoblox NIOS Documentation](https://docs.infoblox.com/)*. For the list of appliance models that vNIOS for Azure supports, see *[vNIOS for Azure X6 Series](https://docs.infoblox.com/space/vniosspec/1488781456/vNIOS+for+Azure+X6+Series)* and *[vNIOS for Azure X5 Series](https://docs.infoblox.com/space/vniosspec/1488650338/vNIOS+for+Azure+X5+Series)*. You can deploy vNIOS instances, provision them to join the on-premises NIOS Grid, and then use them as the primary DNS servers to provide enterprise-grade DNS and IPAM services in Azure; for details,  see *[Configuring vNIOS for Azure as the Primary DNS Server](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/vniosazure/pages/37519464)*.* *You can also use Infoblox Cloud Network Automation with your vNIOS instances, to streamline with IPAM, improve visibility of your cloud networks, and increase the flexibility of your cloud environment. In this document, vNIOS appliances are referred to according to the environment in which they are deployed. The naming convention used for vNIOS appliances and the features and functionalities specific to the environment in which they are deployed, are: - Infoblox vNIOS for Azure Public Cloud: Refers to the vNIOS appliance deployed on Microsoft Azure public cloud, a collection of integrated cloud services in the Microsoft public cloud. You can deploy this vNIOS appliance from the Microsoft Azure Marketplace or from the Azure CLI. For steps, see *[Deploying vNIOS for Azure from the Marketplace](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/vniosazure/pages/37486729)* and *[Deploying vNIOS for Azure Public Cloud from the CLI](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/vniosazure/pages/37781551)*. - After deploying the vNIOS appliance in the Azure public cloud, use vDiscovery to discover and periodically re-discover all resources in the VNets (Azure virtual networks) within your Microsoft cloud. For information about setting up vDiscovery in Azure, see *[Performing vDIscovery on VNets](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/vniosazure/pages/37486690)*. - With the Azure DNS synchronization feature introduced in NIOS 9.0.4, you can enable NIOS to span across Azure virtual networks to discover and integrate Azure DNS data with the NIOS database to get a unified console experience in NIOS. You can configure it to discover and synchronize data across multiple subscriptions of an Azure tenant. - In addition to the DNS, DHCP and IPAM services, vNIOS appliances deployed on Azure Public Cloud provide TFTP, HTTP, FTP, and other services, according to the licenses installed on them. While vNIOS can provide DHCP as a service, Microsoft Azure explicitly does not support any system running DHCP on Microsoft Azure for on-prem networks. For more information, see the *[Infoblox NIOS Documentation](https://docs.infoblox.com/)*. - Starting from NIOS 9.0.4, vNIOS for Azure public cloud appliances can be deployed in an HA (high availability) setup. For deployment steps in Azure, see About Deploying a *[vNIOS for Azure Instance with High Availability](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/vniosazure/pages/1324942556)** *and for information related to HA in NIOS, see the *[Infoblox NIOS Documentation](https://docs.infoblox.com/)*. - With Network Insight appliances deployed on the Azure public cloud, use the discovery feature to detect devices in your network and to collect and manage the device data from Grid Manager. For more information on Network Insight, refer to the *[Infoblox NIOS Documentation](https://docs.infoblox.com/)*. - vNIOS for Azure instances running on NIOS 9.0.5 or later support features that are enabled with accelerated networking. The features include virtual Accelerated DNS Protection, virtual DNS Caching Acceleration, and dnstap. For more information about these features, refer to the *[Infoblox NIOS Documentation](https://docs.infoblox.com/)*. - Infoblox vNIOS for Azure Government: Refers to the vNIOS appliance deployed on Microsoft Azure Government. For more information and the deployment procedure, see the vNIOS for Azure Public Cloud topics in this guide. - Infoblox vNIOS for Azure Stack Hub: Refers to the vNIOS appliance deployed on Azure Stack Hub, which is a hybrid-cloud platform that enables a vNIOS appliance to deliver Azure services in an on-prem environment. You can deploy vNIOS for Azure Stack Hub instances from the Azure CLI or the Microsoft Azure Stack Hub portal. For steps, see *[Deploying vNIOS for Azure Stack Hub from the CLI](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/vniosazure/pages/37650594)*. - In addition to the DNS and IPAM services, vNIOS appliances deployed on Azure Stack Hub provide TFTP, HTTP, FTP, and other services, according to the licenses installed. While vNIOS can provide DHCP as a service, Microsoft Azure explicitly does not support any system running DHCP on Microsoft Azure for on-prem networks. For more information, see the *[Infoblox NIOS Documentation](https://docs.infoblox.com/)*.