Technical Lab: Select a Virtual WAN SKU
Questions
Question 1 — Multiple Choice
A company has branches in 12 countries and needs site-to-site VPN connectivity between all of them, with transitive routing between branches without requiring manual individual peering configuration. The network team also needs ExpressRoute support in the same hub.
Which Virtual WAN SKU meets these requirements?
A) Basic, as it supports site-to-site VPN and routing between branches natively.
B) Standard, as it's the only SKU that supports transitive routing between branches and ExpressRoute in the same hub.
C) Basic, as ExpressRoute is an add-on available with any Virtual WAN SKU.
D) Standard, but ExpressRoute requires a separate hub, without coexistence with VPN in the same hub.
Question 2 — Technical Scenario
A team is provisioning a Virtual WAN and selects the Basic SKU. After configuration, they try to add a User VPN (Point-to-Site) connection to the virtual hub, but the option appears disabled in the portal.
Virtual WAN SKU: Basic
Virtual hub: successfully created
Attempt: add P2S (User VPN) connection
Result: option unavailable
What is the direct cause of the problem?
A) The virtual hub hasn't been associated with a VNet yet, which blocks P2S connections.
B) The Basic SKU doesn't support User VPN (Point-to-Site); this feature requires Standard SKU.
C) It's necessary to configure a dedicated VPN gateway before enabling P2S in Basic.
D) The hub region doesn't support P2S; the hub needs to be recreated in a compatible region.
Question 3 — True or False
A Virtual WAN created with Basic SKU can be upgraded to Standard SKU at any time without needing to recreate the resource, and this change is reversible in case the Standard SKU is no longer needed.
Question 4 — Technical Scenario
An organization already operates a Virtual WAN Standard SKU with multiple hubs connected via ExpressRoute and VPN. The network architect proposes migrating to Basic SKU to reduce costs, arguing that existing connections would be maintained after the downgrade.
What is the central problem with this proposal?
A) The downgrade from Standard to Basic is technically possible, but requires manual recreation of all ExpressRoute connections.
B) The Basic SKU doesn't support ExpressRoute or transitive routing between hubs, and downgrading from Standard to Basic is not supported.
C) The downgrade is supported, but ExpressRoute connections remain in read-only mode until they're migrated.
D) The Basic SKU supports ExpressRoute only in active-passive mode, requiring reconfiguration of existing connections.
Question 5 — Multiple Choice
When comparing Virtual WAN SKUs, which of the statements below correctly describes a functional difference between Basic and Standard?
A) Only the Standard SKU allows creating virtual hubs in multiple Azure regions.
B) The Basic SKU supports site-to-site VPN, but routing between branches occurs exclusively via the central hub, without transitivity; the Standard SKU enables transitive routing between hubs and branches.
C) The Basic SKU doesn't allow any type of VPN connection; only Standard supports site-to-site and P2S.
D) Both SKUs support the same connection types, differing only in bandwidth limits per tunnel.
Answer Key and Explanations
Answer Key — Question 1
Answer: B
The Standard SKU is the only one that offers complete support for: transitive routing between branches (any-to-any without manual configuration), ExpressRoute, site-to-site VPN, User VPN (P2S) and coexistence of multiple connection types in the same hub.
The Basic SKU is restricted to site-to-site VPN and doesn't support transitive routing between branches or ExpressRoute. Alternative D is wrong because, in the Standard SKU, ExpressRoute and VPN coexist in the same virtual hub without requiring separation.
Choosing Basic in this scenario would result in the absence of transitivity, forcing manual peering configurations or adding NVA devices, which defeats the purpose of Virtual WAN.
Answer Key — Question 2
Answer: B
The Basic SKU exclusively supports site-to-site VPN connections. Features like User VPN (Point-to-Site), ExpressRoute and advanced routing between hubs are functionalities restricted to the Standard SKU.
Alternatives A, C and D represent misunderstandings about gateway prerequisites or regional restrictions, which are not the cause of the blocking. The restriction is structural to the SKU, not configurational. No additional configuration in the Basic SKU would unlock P2S, as the feature simply doesn't exist at this service level.
Answer Key — Question 3
Answer: False
The statement is false for two independent reasons:
First, while the upgrade from Basic to Standard is supported, the process is not reversible. Once the Virtual WAN is upgraded to Standard, it's not possible to downgrade back to Basic.
Second, the irreversibility is a critical factor in architecture decision-making: when choosing Basic to reduce initial costs, the organization must be aware that any future need for ExpressRoute, P2S or transitive routing will require permanent upgrade to Standard, with the corresponding cost impact.
Answer Key — Question 4
Answer: B
The downgrade from Standard to Basic is not supported by the platform. Additionally, the Basic SKU doesn't offer ExpressRoute support or transitive routing between hubs, therefore existing connections couldn't be maintained even if the downgrade were possible.
Alternatives A, C and D are plausible distractors because they suggest that the downgrade exists with some limitation, which is incorrect. The absence of downgrade support is a design characteristic of the platform, not a temporary or configurable limitation. The cost reduction argument via downgrade is technically unfeasible in this context.
Answer Key — Question 5
Answer: B
The central functional difference between SKUs lies in transitive routing. The Basic SKU allows site-to-site VPN, but traffic between branches is not routed transitively through the hub; each branch communicates with the hub, but not necessarily with other branches automatically. The Standard SKU enables any-to-any routing between branches, hubs and VNets natively.
Alternative A is false: both SKUs support multiple regions. Alternative C is false: Basic supports site-to-site. Alternative D is false: the difference between SKUs is not just bandwidth, but structural functional capability.