How to allow incoming web traffic to a web server in an Azure VM (using Azure Resource Manager)

02/02/2016

Preliminary I assume you have an Azure VM running with a web server and have the port configured in your firewall of your operating system. In my example I use a Windows Server 2012 with Internet Information Services (IIS) and have configured port 8080 for incoming traffic.

Further, I assume the VM is set up using the new portal (https://portal.azure.com) as an Azure Resource Manager (ARM) deployment and not using the old portal (https://manage.windowsazure.com) and not as a classic deployment. (Follow this link to find a explanation how to do set up ports for a classic deployment.)

Step-by-Step

In the Azure Portal go to the VM running the web server and click on "All settings".
Select "Network interfaces" and select the network interface with the public IP address. (Probably there is only one.)
Select the "Network security group" and click on "All settings".
Select "Inbound security rules".
Click "Add" and create a new inbound rule with the following settings:

Name: any name, e.g. "Web"
Priority: any number lower 65500
Source: any or Internet
Protocol: any or TCP
Source port range: * (important!)
Destination: Any
Destination port range: 8080 (web server's configured port)
Action: Allow