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Azure Load Balancer Tutorial

Introduction

Azure Load Balancer is a Layer 4 (Transport Layer) service that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple virtual machines (VMs) to ensure no single VM becomes overwhelmed. It provides high availability and reliability by distributing the load evenly among all the VMs.

Types of Azure Load Balancers

Azure offers two types of Load Balancers:

  • Basic Load Balancer
  • Standard Load Balancer

The Standard Load Balancer offers more features and higher scalability, while the Basic Load Balancer is more suitable for small-scale applications.

Setting Up an Azure Load Balancer

Follow these steps to set up an Azure Load Balancer:

Step 1: Create a Load Balancer

Navigate to the Azure portal and use the following steps:

  1. Go to "Create a resource" and search for "Load Balancer".
  2. Select "Load Balancer" and click "Create".
  3. Fill in the necessary details like Subscription, Resource Group, Name, Region, and SKU (Basic or Standard).
  4. Click on "Review + create" and then "Create".

Step 2: Configure Backend Pools

Backend pools are the resources that will receive the load-balanced traffic.

Steps:

  1. Navigate to your Load Balancer resource.
  2. Select "Backend pools" and click "Add".
  3. Specify the backend pool name.
  4. Add the VMs to the backend pool.
  5. Click "Add" to save the backend pool.

Step 3: Create Health Probes

Health probes determine the health status of the backend VMs.

Steps:

  1. Navigate to the "Health probes" section in your Load Balancer resource.
  2. Click "Add" to create a new health probe.
  3. Specify the protocol (TCP or HTTP), port, and other settings.
  4. Click "OK" to save the health probe.

Step 4: Configure Load Balancing Rules

Load balancing rules define how traffic is distributed to the backend VMs.

Steps:

  1. Navigate to the "Load balancing rules" section in your Load Balancer resource.
  2. Click "Add" to create a new load balancing rule.
  3. Specify the frontend IP configuration, backend pool, protocol, and port settings.
  4. Click "OK" to save the rule.

Example: Creating a Load Balancer using Azure CLI

Below is an example of how to create a Load Balancer using Azure CLI commands:

az network lb create --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyLoadBalancer --sku Standard --frontend-ip-name MyFrontEnd --backend-pool-name MyBackEndPool
{ "frontendIpConfigurations": [ { "name": "MyFrontEnd", "privateIpAddress": null, "publicIpAddress": { "id": "/subscriptions/{subscription-id}/resourceGroups/MyResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses/MyPublicIP" }, "subnet": null } ], "backendAddressPools": [ { "name": "MyBackEndPool" } ] }

This command creates a Standard SKU Load Balancer with a frontend IP and a backend pool.

Conclusion

Azure Load Balancer is a powerful tool for distributing network traffic across multiple VMs, ensuring high availability and reliability for your applications. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can easily set up and configure a Load Balancer to suit your needs.