Unprotecting and Monitoring a VPC/VNet

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 15 next to a VPC/VNet that is currently protected.

  2. 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

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