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Lab 06 - Implement Traffic Management
Lab introduction
In this lab, you learn how to configure and test a public Load Balancer and an Application Gateway.
This lab requires an Azure subscription. Your subscription type may affect the availability of features in this lab. You may change the region, but the steps are written using East US.
Estimated timing: 40 minutes
Lab scenario
Your organization has a public website. You need to load balance incoming public requests across different virtual machines. You also need to provide images and videos from different virtual machines. You plan on implement and Azure Load Balancer and an Azure Application Gateway. All resources are in the same region.
Interactive lab simulations
There are interactive lab simulations that you might find useful for this topic. The simulation lets you to click through a similar scenario at your own pace. There are differences between the interactive simulation and this lab, but many of the core concepts are the same. An Azure subscription is not required.
- Create and configure and Azure load balancer. Create a virtual network, backend servers, load balancer, and then test the load balancer.
- Deploy Azure Application Gateway. Create an application gateway, create virtual machines, create the backend pool, and test the gateway.
- Implement traffic management. Implement complete hub and spoke network including virtual machines, virtual networks, peering, load balancer, and application gateway.
Tasks
- Task 1: Provision the lab environment
- Task 2: Implement Azure Load Balancer
- Task 3: Implement Azure Application Gateway
Task 1: Provision the lab environment
In this task, you will use a template to deploy one virtual network, one network security group, and two virtual machines along with associated virtual network interface cards. The VMs will reside in a hub virtual network named az104-vnet1.
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If necessary, download the \Allfiles\Lab06\az104-06-vms-loop-template.json lab file.
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Sign in to the Azure portal -
https://portal.azure.com. -
Search for and select
Deploy a custom template. -
On the custom deployment page, select Build you own template in the editor.
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On the edit template page, select Load file.
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Locate and select the \Allfiles\Lab06\az104-06-vms-loop-template.json file and select Open.
Note: Notice this file includes the Parameters at the top of the file. So, a separate Parameters file is not needed.
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Select Save.
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Use the following information to complete the fields on the custom deployment page, leaving all other fields with the default value.
Setting Value Subscription Your Azure subscription Resource group az104-rg6(If necessary, select Create new)Region East US VM Size Standard DS2 v3 Admin Username localadminPassword Provide a secure password Note
: If you receive an error that the VM size is unavailable, select a SKU that is available in your subscription and has at least 2 cores.
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Select Review + Create and then select Create.
Note
: Wait for the deployment to finish before moving to the next task. The deployment should complete in approximately 5 minutes.
Note: While you wait, search for and select Network Watcher. Select the Topology blade to get a view of the virtual network infrastructure. Hover over the networks to view subnet and IP addressing information.
Task 2: Implement Azure Load Balancer
In this task, you will implement an Azure Load Balancer in front of the two Azure virtual machines in the hub virtual network. Load Balancers in Azure provide layer 4 connectivity across resources, such as virtual machines. Load Balancer configuration includes a front-end IP address to accept connections, a backend pool, and rules that define how connections should traverse the load balancer.
Architecture diagram - Load Balancer
Note
: Notice the Load Balancer is distributing across two virtual machines in the same virtual network.
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In the Azure portal, search for and select
Load balancersand, on the Load balancers blade, click + Create. -
Create a load balancer with the following settings (leave others with their default values) then click Next : Frontend IP configuration:
Setting Value Subscription the name of your Azure subscription Resource group az104-rg6 Name az104-lbRegion The same region that you deployed the VMs SKU Standard Type Public Tier Regional -
On the Frontend IP configuration tab, click Add a frontend IP configuration and use the following settings:
Setting Value Name az104-feIP type IP address Public IP address Select Create new Gateway Load Balancer None -
On the Add a public IP address popup, use the following settings before clicking OK and then Add. When completed click Next: Backend pools.
Setting Value Name az104-pipSKU Standard Tier Regional Assignment Static Routing Preference Microsoft network -
On the Backend pools tab, click Add a backend pool with the following settings (leave others with their default values). Click + Add (twice) and then click Next: Inbound rules.
Setting Value Name az104-beVirtual network az104-06-vnet1 Backend Pool Configuration NIC Click Add to add a virtual machine az104-vm0 check the box az104-vm1 check the box -
On the Inbound rules tab, click Add a load balancing rule. Add a load balancing rule with the following settings (leave others with their default values). When completed click Add.
Setting Value Name az104-lbruleIP Version IPv4 Frontend IP Address az104-fe Backend pool az104-be Protocol TCP Port 80Backend port 80Health probe Create new Name az104-hpProtocol TCP Port 80Interval 5Close the create health probe window Save Session persistence None Idle timeout (minutes) 4TCP reset Disabled Floating IP Disabled Outbound source network address translation (SNAT) Recommended -
As you have time, review the other tabs, then click Review and create. Ensure there are no validation errors, then click Create.
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Wait for the load balancer to deploy then click Go to resource.
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Select Frontend IP configuration from the Load Balancer resource page. Copy the public IP address.
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Open another browser tab and navigate to the IP address. Verify that the browser window displays the message Hello World from az104-06-vm0 or Hello World from az104-06-vm1.
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Refresh the window to verify the message changes to the other virtual machine. This demonstrates the load balancer rotating through the virtual machines.
Note
: You may need to refresh more than once or open a new browser window in InPrivate mode.
Test the connection between vm0 and vm1
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From the Azure portal, search for and select
Network Watcher. -
From Network Watcher, in the Network diagnostic tools menu, select Connection troubleshoot.
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Use the following information to complete the fields on the Connection troubleshoot page.
Field Value Source type Virtual machine Virtual machine vm0 Destination type Virtual machine Virtual machine vm1 Preferred IP Version Both Protocol TCP Destination port 3389Source port Blank Diagnostic tests Defaults -
Select Run diagnostic tests.
Note
: It may take a couple of minutes for the results to return. The screen selections will be greyed out while the results are being collected. Notice the Connectivity test shows Reachable. This makes sense because the virtual machines are in the same virtual network.
Task 3: Implement Azure Application Gateway
In this task, you will implement an Azure Application Gateway in front of the two Azure virtual machines. An Application Gateway provides layer 7 load balancing, Web Application Firewall (WAF), SSL termination, and end-to-end encryption to the resources defined in the backend pool. The Application Gateway will route images to one virtual machine and videos to the other virtual machine.
Architecture diagram - Application Gateway
Note
: This Application Gateway is working in the same virtual network as the Load Balancer in the previous tasks. This is not typical in a production environment.
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In the Azure portal, search and select
Virtual networks. -
On the Virtual networks blade, in the list of virtual networks, click az104-vnet1.
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On the az104-vnet1 virtual network blade, in the Settings section, click Subnets, and then click + Subnet.
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Add a subnet with the following settings (leave others with their default values).
Setting Value Name subnet-appgwSubnet address range 10.60.3.224/27 -
Click Save
Note
: This subnet will be used by the Azure Application Gateway instances. The Application Gateway requires a dedicated subnet of /27 or larger size.
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In the Azure portal, search and select
Application Gatewaysand, on the Application Gateways blade, click + Create. -
On the Basics tab, specify the following settings (leave others with their default values):
Setting Value Subscription the name of the Azure subscription you are using in this lab Resource group az104-rg6Application gateway name az104-appgwRegion The same Azure region that you used in Task 1 Tier Standard V2 Enable autoscaling No Instance count 2Availability zone None HTTP2 Disabled Virtual network az104-06-vnet1 Subnet subnet-appgw (10.60.3.224/27) -
Click Next: Frontends > and specify the following settings (leave others with their default values). When complete, click OK.
Setting Value Frontend IP address type Public Public IP address Add new Name az104-gwpipAvailability zone None -
Click Next: Backends > and then Add a backend pool. This is the backend pool for images. Specify the following settings (leave others with their default values). When completed click Add.
Setting Value Name az104-appgwbeAdd backend pool without targets No Virtual machine az104-rg6-nic1 (10.60.1.4) Virtual machine az104-rg6-nic2 (10.60.2.4) -
Click Next: Configuration > and then + Add a routing rule. Specify the following settings:
Setting Value Rule name az104-gwrulePriority 10Listener name az104-listenerFrontend IP Public Protocol HTTP Port 80Listener type Basic -
Switch to the Backend targets tab and specify the following settings (leave others with their default values).
Setting Value Target type Backend pool Backend target az104-appgwbe Backend settings Add new Backend settings name az104-httpBackend protocol HTTP Backend port 80Additional settings take the defaults Host name take the defaults Note: Use the informational icons to learn more about Cookie-based affinity and Connection draining.
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Select Add multiple targets to create a path-based rule. You will create two rules.
Rule - routing to the images backend
Setting Value Path /image/*Target name imagesBackend settings az104-http Backend target az104-appgwbeRule - routing to the videos backend
Setting Value Path /video/*Target name videosBackend settings az104-http Backend target az104-appgwbe -
Select Add twice then select Next: Tags >.
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Select Next: Review + create > and then click Create.
Note
: Wait for the Application Gateway instance to be created. This will take approximately 5-10 minutes.
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In the Azure portal, search and select az104-appgw.
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In the Application Gateway resource, in the Monitoring section, select Backend health.
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Ensure both servers in the backend pool display Healthy.
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On the az104-appgw Application Gateway blade, copy the value of the Frontend public IP address.
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Start another browser window and test the URL -
http://<frontend ip address>/image/. -
Verify you are directed to image server (vm1).
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Start another browser window and test the URL -
http://<frontend ip address>/video/. -
Verify you are directed to image server (vm2).
Note
: You may need to refresh more than once or open a new browser window in InPrivate mode.
Key takeaways
Congratulations on completing the lab. Here are the main takeaways for this lab.
- Azure Load Balancer is an excellent choice for distributing network traffic across multiple virtual machines at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP).
- Public Load Balancers are used to load balance internet traffic to your VMs. An internal (or private) load balancer is used where private IPs are needed at the frontend only.
- The Basic load balancer is for small-scale applications that don't need high availability or redundancy. The Standard load balancer is for high performance and ultra-low latency.
- Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic (OSI layer 7) load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications.
- An Application Gateway can make routing decisions based on additional attributes of an HTTP request, for example URI path or host headers.
Learn more with self-paced training
- Improve application scalability and resiliency by using Azure Load Balancer. Discuss the different load balancers in Azure and how to choose the right Azure load balancer solution to meet your requirements.
- Load balance your web service traffic with Application Gateway. Improve application resilience by distributing load across multiple servers and use path-based routing to direct web traffic.
- Configure monitoring for virtual networks. Understand how to use Azure Network Watcher Connection Monitor, flow logs, NSG diagnostics, and packet capture to monitor connectivity across your Azure IaaS network resources.
Cleanup your resources
If you are working with your own subscription take a minute to delete the lab resources. This will ensure resources are freed up and cost is minimized. The easiest way to delete the lab resources is to delete the lab resource group.
- In the Azure portal, select the resource group, select Delete the resource group, Enter resource group name, and then click Delete.
- Using Azure PowerShell,
Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name resourceGroupName. - Using the CLI,
az group delete --name resourceGroupName.





