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There are several scenarios where you might want to unprotect a previously protected VPC/VNet while still maintaining monitoring:
  • During development cycles or when testing new applications, you may need to temporarily allow all outbound traffic while still keeping an eye on communication patterns.
  • If application issues arise that might be related to overly restrictive egress policies, temporarily unprotecting a VPC/VNet can help identify if security rules are causing the problem without losing visibility.
  • When integrating new cloud services or third-party tools, you might need to allow broader access initially to discover all required endpoints before implementing targeted protection.
  • Some compliance frameworks require traffic monitoring while allowing business operations to continue without restriction.
  • To determine if protective filtering is causing latency issues, you might unprotect while continuing to monitor traffic patterns and performance metrics.
When you unprotect and continue to monitor a VPC/VNet:
  • The Default Deny Rule for this VPC/VNet will be removed, allowing all egress traffic to flow
  • The VPC/VNet is removed from the Protected VPC/VNets SmartGroup and added back to the Monitored VPCs SmartGroup
  • Any Permit protection rules you created are kept
To remove protection from a VPC/VNet, but continue to monitor its traffic:
  1. On the Security > Egress > Egress VPC/VNets tab, click the vertical ellipsis threedot next to a VPC/VNet that is currently protected.
  2. Click Unprotect and Monitor.
  3. In the Unprotect and Monitor VPC/VNet dialog, select the I understand that <vpc/vnet name> will no longer be protected checkbox.
  4. Click Unprotect and Monitor.
After unprotecting a VPC/VNet, you should review the monitoring data regularly to:
  • Observe new traffic patterns that might emerge with unrestricted access
  • Identify any potential security concerns that warrant re-enabling protection
  • Build more refined protection rules based on the actual traffic needs observed
  • Document legitimate business traffic that should be explicitly allowed when protection is reapplied