What are the differences between virtual network gateway vs VPN gateway and what determines which one to use?
The closest definition I can find is
"A VPN gateway is a specific type of virtual network gateway that is used to send encrypted traffic between an Azure virtual network and an on-premises location over the public Internet."
I'm a developer and do little bit of ops, so trying to make sense.
As you found the closet definition, the VPN gateway is a specific type of the virtual network gateway. When you create a virtual network gateway resource in Azure, you can select the VPN or ExpressRoute gateway type in Azure. The VPN gateway usually means a VPN gateway type of virtual network gateway.
there is no such resource VPN gateway in Azure. So its probably a different way to call Virtual Network Gateway
Technically there are Resource Types of Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworkGateways and Microsoft.Network/vpnGateways. All ARM templates all use Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworkGateways resource type when deploying the Virtual Network Gateway - Type VPN as a standalone service. However when VPN is integrated into Virtual WAN/Hub you will see VPN Gateway (Microsoft.Network/vpnGateways) is used then.
| Purpose | ResourceType1 | ResourceType2 | ResourceType3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| As a VPN service outside a Virtual WAN/Hub use: | Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworkGateways | Microsoft.Network/Connections | Microsoft.Network/localNetworkGateways |
| Inside a Virtual WAN/Hub use: | Microsoft.Network/vpnGateways | Microsoft.Network/vpnGateways/vpnConnections | Microsoft.Network/vpnSites |
