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Step-by-Step Guide: Reduce Latency between Azure VMs by using proximity placement group (PowerShell Guide)

The latency between two servers located in two regions is normally higher than the latency between two servers located in the same data center or the same rack. High latency between application servers has a direct impact on the overall performance of the application. By placing applications servers in the same physical location, we can reduce the latency. When it comes to Azure VMs, we can reduce the latency between servers by placing those in the same Azure region or in the same availability zone. But this doesn’t mean the servers are running from the same data center. As Azure grows a region can have multiple data centers. But now with proximity placement group, we can co-locate Azure VMs to the same data center.

The proximity placement group can have stand-alone VMs, VM scale sets or VM availability sets. Once the proximity placement group is created, we can deploy new servers to it or move existing servers to it. It is recommended to use accelerated networking with the virtual machine in proximity placement group to further reduce the latency. Also, if possible, use one VM template for virtual machines in the same proximity placement group. This is because some datacentres only support certain VM SKUs and sizes.

In this demo, I am going to demonstrate how we can create a proximity placement group and deploy a virtual machine to it. I also going to demonstrate how to move the existing virtual machine to the proximity placement group.

For the configuration process, I will be using PowerShell. Therefore, please make sure you have an Azure PowerShell module installed. More info about it can find here.

Create proximity placement group

Let’s start the configuration process by creating a new resource group.

1. Launch PowerShell console and connect to Azure using Connect-AzAccount as Global Administrator

2. Then create a new resource group using,

New-AzResourceGroup -Name REBELRG1 -Location “East US”

create azure resource group

In the above, REBELRG1 is the resource group names and East US is the Azure region.

3. The next step is to create a new virtual network under REBELRG1 resource group.

$vmsubnet = New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name vmsubnet -AddressPrefix “10.0.2.0/24”

New-AzVirtualNetwork -Name REBELVN1 -ResourceGroupName REBELRG1 -Location “East US” -AddressPrefix “10.0.0.0/16” -Subnet $vmsubnet

create virtual network

In the above, REBELVN1 is the new virtual network name. It has 10.0.0.0/16 address space. It also has a new subnet 10.0.2.0/24 (vmsubnet) for virtual machines

4. As the next step of the configuration, let’s go ahead and create proximity placement group using,

New-AzProximityPlacementGroup -Location “East US” -Name rebelpggrp01 -ResourceGroupName REBELRG1 -ProximityPlacementGroupType Standard

create proximity placement group

In the above, I created a ppg called rebelpggrp01. The group type is set to standard. [Read more…] about Step-by-Step Guide: Reduce Latency between Azure VMs by using proximity placement group (PowerShell Guide)

Step-by-Step Guide: How to setup Azure Global VNET Peering? (PowerShell Guide)

Azure VNET peering allows connecting virtual networks seamlessly via Azure backbone infrastructure. This is similar to inter-VLAN routing in on-premises networks. VNET peering can use to connect virtual networks in the same Azure region or different Azure regions. If it is between regions, we call it “Azure Global VNET Peering”.
Global VNET Peering has following benefits,

• Low latency and high bandwidth as it uses Azure network backbone
• No requirement for encryptions, VPN gateways or public internet to connect VNETs

In this demo, I am going to demonstrate how to connect two virtual networks in two different Azure regions using Azure Global VNET peering.
For the configuration process, I will be using PowerShell. Therefore, please make sure you have an Azure PowerShell module installed. More info about it can find under https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/azure/install-az-ps?view=azps-3.8.0

As the first part of the configuration, I am going to create two new resource groups and two virtual networks.

1. Launch PowerShell console and connect to Azure using Connect-AzAccount

2. Then create two new resource group using,

New-AzResourceGroup -Name REBELRG1 -Location “East US”

New-AzResourceGroup -Name REBELRG2 -Location “UK South”

Create new Azure Resource Groups

In the above, REBELRG1 & REBELRG2 are the resource group names and East US is the resource group names. REBELRG1 is created in Azure East US region and REBELRG2 is created in Azure UK South region.

3. The next step is to create a new virtual network under REBELRG1 resource group.

$vmsubnet = New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name vmsubnet -AddressPrefix “10.0.2.0/24”
New-AzVirtualNetwork -Name REBELVN1 -ResourceGroupName REBELRG1 -Location “East US” -AddressPrefix “10.0.0.0/16” -Subnet $vmsubnet

Create Azure Virtual Network in East US region

In the above, REBELVN1 is the new virtual network name. It has 10.0.0.0/16 address space. It also has a new subnet 10.0.2.0/24 (vmsubnet) for virtual machines.

4. Then let’s go ahead and create another virtual network under REBELRG2 resource group. This will be in UK South Azure region.

$vmsubnet2 = New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name vmsubnet2 -AddressPrefix “10.1.3.0/24”
New-AzVirtualNetwork -Name REBELVN2 -ResourceGroupName REBELRG2 -Location “UK South” -AddressPrefix “10.1.0.0/16” -Subnet $vmsubnet2

Create Azure virtual network in UK South region [Read more…] about Step-by-Step Guide: How to setup Azure Global VNET Peering? (PowerShell Guide)

Step-by-Step guide to create VM with Azure Accelerated networking

In my previous post I have explained what is Azure Accelerated networking and how it works. If you didn’t read it yet, you can do it using https://www.rebeladmin.com/2018/01/azure-accelerated-networking/ . In this post I am going to show how we can create VM with AN and verify its actions. 

There are few limitations we need to aware before we use Azure Accelerated networking. 

1. Can’t use with existing VMs – In order to use AN feature, Virtual machines must be created with Accelerated Networking enabled. This feature cannot enable in existing VMs. 

2. A NIC with AN cannot attached to an existing VM –  A NIC with AN enabled only can attached during the VM creation process. It is not possible to attach it to existing VM. 

3. Azure Resource Manager only – This feature only can use with AR. It can’t use in classic portal. 

In my demo I am going to create new VM in new resource group with Azure Accelerated networking enable. Please note this feature can only enable using Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell.

Here I am going to use Azure CLI. More info about Azure CLI can be found in my blog post https://www.rebeladmin.com/2017/08/step-step-guide-start-azure-cli-2-0/ 

1. As first step I am going to create new resource group called ANTest in westus region. 

az group create --name ANTest --location westus

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2. Then we need to create virtual network. In demo I am creating virtual network called ANTestVNet with address space 10.10.0.0/16

az network vnet create --name ANTestVNet --resource-group ANTest --location westus --address-prefix 10.10.0.0/16

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3. Next step is to create a subnet under selected address space. In my demo I am creating 10.10.20.0/24 subnet with name ANTestsub1

az network vnet subnet create --address-prefix 10.10.20.0/24 --name ANTestsub1 --resource-group ANTest --vnet-name ANTestVNet

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4. I like to access this vm from internet so I need a public ip attached to it. 

az network public-ip create --name ANTestpubip1 --resource-group ANTest --location westus --allocation-method dynamic

in above I am using dynamically assigned ip rather than static public ip.

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5. Now we have everything ready to create NIC. This is the most important part of the job. So the command I am using for it is,

az network nic create --resource-group ANTest --name ANTestNic1 --vnet-name ANTestVNet --subnet ANTestsub1 --accelerated-networking true --public-ip-address ANTestpubip1

in above ANTestNic1 is the NIC name. –accelerated-networking true is the command to enable AN feature. 

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6. Next step is to create VM with this new NIC attached. Please note there are only some OS and VM templates support this AN feature. So, make sure you select the correct size. if you use unsupported template, you can’t change enable AN by just changing the template. In my demo I am creating windows server 2016 server with Standard_DS4_v2 vm template.

az vm create --resource-group ANTest --location westus --nics ANTestNic1 --name REBELVM101 --image win2016datacenter --size Standard_DS4_v2 --admin-username rebeladmin --admin-password L0nd0n3322$

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once it is completed we can log in to VM and verify. Once this feature enabled you will be able to see Mellanox ConnectX-3 Virtual Function Ethernet Adapter in device manager.

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Let’s see how it affecting performance. I do have 2 VM created using old method and I am transferring a folder with 10Gb data between them. So, let’s see how the performance looks like. 

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And when I do transfer same file between 2 VM with AN enabled I get following performance. 

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It’s pretty amazing ha??? 

This marks the end of this blog post. Hope this was useful. If you have any questions feel free to contact me on rebeladm@live.com also follow me on twitter @rebeladm to get updates about new blog posts.

Azure Accelerated Networking

Early January Microsoft announced general availability of Azure Accelerated Networking (AN). It is now available for all the regions. This will improve the VM’s performance as its offloading software-define networking from CPU to FPGA-based SmartNICs. To make it more interesting, it can provide up to 30Gbps networking throughput without any additional charge. 

How it works? 

If you worked with Hyper-V clusters, System Center virtualization manager (SCVMM) you may probably aware how virtual switches works. It works as a middle man between virtual machines and physical network to provide greater control over “Communication”. It allows to move workloads between physical hosts, control traffic and isolation using policies, flexible hardware upgrades etc. Azure also uses virtual switches similar to hyper-v. 

accelerated-networking
Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/media/create-vm-accelerated-networking/accelerated-networking.png 
 
You also can read more about it using this link. 
 
As you can see in the above image without accelerate networking, traffic always need to pass through the virtual switch and physical hosts before it reaches the physical switch. When Accelerated networking in place, network traffic is directly handled by physical switch by bypassing host and the virtual switch. All the policies you used with virtual switches now can offload to hardware. As it removes the dependency of host to process the packet, we will be able to see lower latency. If there is no AN, Virtual switch process all the policies applying to network traffic. Since it is software based of cause it is need to handle by CPU. But the performance of it depend on the CPU utilization and number of policies. With AN, policies will no longer rely on CPU and it handle by the dedicated hardware. This will reduce jitter. 
 
Limitations 
 
There are few limitations applying to this feature. 
 
1. Can’t use with existing VMs – In order to use AN features, Virtual machines must be created with Accelerated Networking enabled. This feature cannot enable in existing VMs. 
2. A NIC with AN cannot attached to an existing VM –  A NIC with AN enabled only can attached during the VM creation process. It is not possible to attach it to existing VM. 
3. Azure Resource Manager only – This feature only can use with ARM. It can’t use in classic portal. 
 
Supported VM Instances 
 
Azure Accelerated Networking is supported on D/DSv2, D/DSv3, E/ESv3, F/Fs/Fsv2, and Ms/Mms Azure VM series. 

Supported Operating Systems
 
Azure Accelerated Networking is supported on both Linux and Windows operating systems such as, 
 
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2012R2
• Ubuntu 16.04
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4
• CentOS 7.4
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3
 
This marks the end of this blog post. Hope this was useful. In next post I will demonstrate how to create VM with AN feature. If you have any questions feel free to contact me on rebeladm@live.com also follow me on twitter @rebeladm to get updates about new blog posts.