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Network Interface

Introduction

Section titled “Introduction”

Azure Network Interface (NIC) is the interconnection between a virtual machine and a virtual network. A NIC enables an Azure VM to communicate with the internet, Azure, and on-premises resources. Each NIC can have one or more IP configurations, an associated subnet, optional network security group (NSG), and optional public IP address. For more information, see Network interfaces.

LocalStack for Azure provides a local environment for building and testing applications that make use of Network Interfaces. The supported APIs are available on our API Coverage section, which provides information on the extent of Network Interface’s integration with LocalStack.

Getting started

Section titled “Getting started”

This guide is designed for users new to Network Interfaces 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:

Terminal window
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:

Terminal window
azlocal stop-interception

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

Create a resource group and virtual network

Section titled “Create a resource group and virtual network”

A network interface must be associated with a subnet. Create the prerequisite resources first:

Terminal window
az group create \
  --name rg-nic-demo \
  --location westeurope
Output
{
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo",
  "location": "westeurope",
  "managedBy": null,
  "name": "rg-nic-demo",
  "properties": {
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded"
  },
  "tags": null,
  "type": "Microsoft.Resources/resourceGroups"
}

Create a virtual network for the network interfaces:

Terminal window
az network vnet create \
  --name vnet-nic-demo \
  --resource-group rg-nic-demo \
  --location westeurope \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.0.0/16
Output
{
  "newVNet": {
    "addressSpace": {
      "addressPrefixes": [
        "10.0.0.0/16"
      ]
    },
    "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-nic-demo",
    "location": "westeurope",
    "name": "vnet-nic-demo",
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "resourceGroup": "rg-nic-demo",
    "subnets": [],
    "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks",
    ...
  }
}

Create a subnet within the virtual network to attach the NICs to:

Terminal window
az network vnet subnet create \
  --name subnet-nic \
  --resource-group rg-nic-demo \
  --vnet-name vnet-nic-demo \
  --address-prefixes 10.0.1.0/24
Output
{
  "addressPrefix": "10.0.1.0/24",
  "delegations": [],
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-nic-demo/subnets/subnet-nic",
  "name": "subnet-nic",
  "privateEndpointNetworkPolicies": "Disabled",
  "privateLinkServiceNetworkPolicies": "Enabled",
  "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
  "resourceGroup": "rg-nic-demo",
  "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/subnets"
...
}

Create a network interface

Section titled “Create a network interface”

Create a NIC attached to the subnet:

Terminal window
az network nic create \
  --name nic-demo \
  --resource-group rg-nic-demo \
  --location westeurope \
  --vnet-name vnet-nic-demo \
  --subnet subnet-nic
Output
{
  "NewNIC": {
    "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/nic-demo",
    "ipConfigurations": [
      {
        "name": "ipconfig1",
        "primary": true,
        "privateIPAddress": "10.0.1.4",
        "privateIPAddressVersion": "IPV4",
        "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
        "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
        "resourceGroup": "rg-nic-demo",
        "subnet": {
          "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-nic-demo/subnets/subnet-nic",
          "resourceGroup": "rg-nic-demo"
        },
        ...
      }
    ],
    "location": "westeurope",
    "name": "nic-demo",
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "resourceGroup": "rg-nic-demo",
    "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
    ...
  }
}

Create a NIC with a static private IP

Section titled “Create a NIC with a static private IP”

Create a second network interface and assign a static private IP address from the subnet:

Terminal window
az network nic create \
  --name nic-static \
  --resource-group rg-nic-demo \
  --location westeurope \
  --vnet-name vnet-nic-demo \
  --subnet subnet-nic \
  --private-ip-address 10.0.1.10
Output
{
  "NewNIC": {
    "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/nic-static",
    "ipConfigurations": [
      {
        "name": "ipconfig1",
        "primary": true,
        "privateIPAddress": "10.0.1.10",
        "privateIPAddressVersion": "IPV4",
        "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Static",
        "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
        "subnet": {
          "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-nic-demo/subnets/subnet-nic",
          "resourceGroup": "rg-nic-demo"
        },
        ...
      }
    ],
    "location": "westeurope",
    "name": "nic-static",
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "resourceGroup": "rg-nic-demo",
    "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
    ...
  }
}

Get and list network interfaces

Section titled “Get and list network interfaces”

Retrieve the details of a network interface and list all NICs in the resource group:

Terminal window
az network nic show \
  --name nic-demo \
  --resource-group rg-nic-demo
Output
{
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/nic-demo",
  "ipConfigurations": [
    {
      "name": "ipconfig1",
      "primary": true,
      "privateIPAddressVersion": "IPV4",
      "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
      "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
      "subnet": {
        "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-nic-demo/subnets/subnet-nic",
        "resourceGroup": "rg-nic-demo"
      },
      ...
    }
  ],
  "location": "westeurope",
  "name": "nic-demo",
  "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
  "resourceGroup": "rg-nic-demo",
  "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
  ...
}

Then list all network interfaces in the resource group:

Terminal window
az network nic list \
  --resource-group rg-nic-demo
Output
[
  {
    "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/nic-demo",
    "ipConfigurations": [ { "name": "ipconfig1", "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic", ... } ],
    "location": "westeurope",
    "name": "nic-demo",
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
    ...
  },
  {
    "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-nic-demo/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/nic-static",
    "ipConfigurations": [ { "name": "ipconfig1", "privateIPAddress": "10.0.1.10", "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Static", ... } ],
    "location": "westeurope",
    "name": "nic-static",
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
    ...
  }
]

Delete a network interface

Section titled “Delete a network interface”

Delete the network interface and verify it no longer appears in the list:

Terminal window
az network nic delete \
  --name nic-demo \
  --resource-group rg-nic-demo

Features

Section titled “Features”

The Network Interface emulator supports the following features:

  • Create and manage NICs: Full lifecycle management including create, get, update, list, and delete.
  • Dynamic IP allocation: Automatically assigns a private IP address from the associated subnet address space.
  • Static IP configuration: Assign a fixed private IP address from the subnet range.
  • Public IP association: Attach a public IP address resource to a NIC IP configuration.
  • NSG association: Associate a network security group with a NIC.
  • IP forwarding: Configure IP forwarding on the NIC for routing scenarios.
  • Accelerated networking: Store and return the enableAcceleratedNetworking flag.
  • Tags: Apply and update resource tags.
  • Subscription-scoped listing: List all NICs across a subscription.

Limitations

Section titled “Limitations”
  • No actual networking: Network Interface is a mock implementation. State is persisted in memory and returned faithfully, but no network packets are routed through the interface.
  • No VM attachment enforcement: Associating a NIC with a virtual machine is accepted but VM resources are not implemented.
  • No data persistence: NIC resources are not persisted and are lost when the emulator is stopped or restarted.

Samples

Section titled “Samples”

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

API Coverage

Section titled “API Coverage”
Operation ▲Implemented ▼
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