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Azure HighAvailability

How to Deploy an Azure VM to Availability Zone? (PowerShell Guide)

Azure Availability Zones offers high availability for data and applications. In an Azure region, there can be one or more data centers. Azure Availability Zone is made out of one or more datacentres in the same Azure region, which have independent power, hardware, networking, and cooling. All Zone redundant service will replicate data and application across Availability Zone for high resilience. Each Azure region contains a minimum of three Azure Availability Zones.
More Information about Azure Availability Zones are available on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/availability-zones/az-overview

We also can deploy Azure Virtual Machines into Azure Availability Zone for high availability. In this demo, I am going to demonstrate how we can deploy Azure Windows Virtual Machine to Azure Availability Zone by using Azure PowerShell.
Before we start, 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

Create Resource Groups

As the first part of the configuration, I am going to create a new resource group. To do that,

Launch PowerShell console and connect to Azure using Connect-AzAccount

Then create a new resource group using,

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

Setup Azure Resource Group

In the above, I am creating a resource group called REBELRGEUS in East US Azure region.

Create Azure VNet

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

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

Create Azure 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. [Read more…] about How to Deploy an Azure VM to Availability Zone? (PowerShell Guide)

How to use Azure Front Door for Global load balancing?

Microsoft Azure has various service, which can use to load balance your application traffic at the global level or regional level. Azure Front Door is also one of those services.

  • Traffic Manager
  • Application Gateway
  • Load Balancer

Traffic Manager, is a DNS based traffic load balancer. It examines the incoming DNS request and replies according to traffic routing rules.

Application Gateway is a layer 7 load balancer which can make routing decisions based on the attributes of an HTTP request (URL based routing).

load balancer works in layer 4 (transport layer) and can distribute network traffic to endpoints in the same Azure region. It can use to distribute internet traffic as well as internal traffic.

Azure Front Door also a solution that can use for Global load balancing. It also works in layer 7 and it can provide dynamic website acceleration (DSA) to globally distributed applications. It examines incoming HTTP requests and route traffic to the closest back end based on availability and configuration rules. Azure front door can offer,

    • Accelerated application performance by using split TCP-based anycast protocol
    • Intelligent health probe monitoring for backend resources
    • URL-path based routing for requests
    • Enables the hosting of multiple websites for efficient application infrastructure.
    • Cookie-based session affinity
    • SSL offloading and certificate management
    • Define your custom domain
    • Application security with integrated Web Application Firewall (WAF)
    • Redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS with URL redirect
    • Custom forwarding path with URL rewrite
    • Native support of end-to-end IPv6 connectivity and HTTP/2 protocol

In this blog post, I am going to demonstrate how to set up Azure Front door and show how we can use it for application load balancing.

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

Create New Azure Resource Groups

First, I am going to create two resource groups in Azure. One is in East US region and another one is UK South region. To do that,

1. Launch PowerShell console and connect to Azure using Connect-AzAccount
2. Then create new resource groups using,

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

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

Create Azure Resoruce Groups

In here, we are creating two resource groups. The first one is called REBELRGEUS and it is created in East US Azure region.

The second group is called REBELRGUKS and it is created in UK South azure region.

Create Azure Web Applications

The next step of the configuration is to create two applications in these new resource groups. For that, I followed https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/quickstart-html and create two new Azure web applications.

East US Site

Azure WebApp in East US Region

UK South Site

Azure WebApp in UK South Region

Create Azure Front End Object for Azure Front Door

We need a hostname for Azure Front Door. Then, users can access it from the internet. To do that we need to create Azure frontend object first.

$afd = “rebeladminapp-frontend-$(Get-Random)”
$feobject = New-AzFrontDoorFrontendEndpointObject -Name “rebelfrontend1″ -HostName $afd”.azurefd.net”

In here, New-AzFrontDoorFrontendEndpointObject command is used to create a new frontend object called “rebelfrontend1“. Also, in their rebeladminapp-frontend-$(Get-Random) value defines the hostname prefix.

Create Azure Front Door FrontEnd Object

In next step of the configuration, We are going to create a backend pool. [Read more…] about How to use Azure Front Door for Global load balancing?

Step-by-Step Guide: Application layer (OSI layer 7) load balancing with Azure Application Gateway (PowerShell Guide)

In my previous blog posts, I explained about two types of Azure solution to load balance web traffic.

• Azure Traffic Manager – If you are looking for DNS level load balancing which can distribute traffic to global endpoints, Azure traffic manager will be the product to look at. More info about deployment can be found on https://www.rebeladmin.com/2020/02/step-by-step-guide-dns-based-traffic-load-balancing-with-azure-traffic-manager/

• Azure Load Balancer – Azure load balancer works in layer 4 (transport layer) and can distribute network traffic to endpoints in the same Azure region. It can use to distribute internet traffic as well as internal traffic. More info about deployment can be found on https://www.rebeladmin.com/2020/01/step-step-guide-setup-azure-load-balancer-powershell-guide/

However, if you looking for Layer 7 (Application Layer) load balancing solution, Azure Application Gateway is the answer. Azure Application Gateway has the following features,

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL/TLS) termination
• Autoscaling
• Zone redundancy
• Static VIP
• Web Application Firewall
• Ingress Controller for AKS
• URL-based routing
• Multiple-site hosting
• Redirection
• Session affinity
• Websocket and HTTP/2 traffic
• Connection draining
• Custom error pages
• Rewrite HTTP headers
• Sizing

More info about these features are available on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/features

In this demo, I am going to show how we can setup URL-based routing using Azure Application Gateway.

To do that I will need to do the following tasks,

1. Setup new resource group
2. Create Virtual Networks
3. AG IP and frontend port configuration
4. Create Backend pool
5. Create listener and AG routing rule
6. Create Azure Application Gateway
7. Add Backend pools for videos and images
8. Add frontend port for the pool
9. Create Backend Listener
10. Create URL path map
11. Create routing rule
12. Create virtual machines
13. Add Web Content
14. Testing

For the configuration process, I will be using Azure PowerShell. Therefore, please make sure you have Azure PowerShell module installed. More info about it can find under https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/azure/install-az-ps?view=azps-2.6.0

Setup new resource group

Launch PowerShell console and connect to Azure using Connect-AzAccount

Then create a new resource group using,

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

In the above, REBELRG1 is the resource group name and East US is the resource group location.

Create Virtual Networks

In this demo, I am going to use two back end servers. Before VM setup, let’s go ahead and create a new virtual network in REBELRG1 resource group.

$vmsubnet = New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name vmsubnet -AddressPrefix “10.0.2.0/24”
$agsubnet = New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name agsubnet -AddressPrefix “10.0.3.0/24”
New-AzVirtualNetwork -Name REBELVN1 -ResourceGroupName REBELRG1 -Location “East US” -AddressPrefix “10.0.0.0/16” -Subnet $vmsubnet, $agsubnet

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 and 10.0.3.0/24 subnet (agsubnet) for the application gateway.

Create new public IP address

We require public ip address for Azure Application gateway. This will be the external contact point for the gateway. To create that,

New-AzPublicIpAddress -ResourceGroupName REBELRG1 -Location “East US” -Name REBELPublicIP01 -AllocationMethod Static -Sku Standard

In the above, we are creating a public IP address called REBELPublicIP01 with standard SKU. [Read more…] about Step-by-Step Guide: Application layer (OSI layer 7) load balancing with Azure Application Gateway (PowerShell Guide)

Step-by-Step Guide: How to setup an Azure load balancer? (PowerShell Guide)

In my previous blog post https://www.rebeladmin.com/2020/01/step-step-guide-setup-azure-load-balancer/, I explained how to setup an Azure load balancer. In that post, I used GUI method to set it up. In this post I am going to show how we can set azure load balancer using Azure PowerShell. 

In this demo, I am going to set up two virtual servers with IIS on it. Then I am going to set up Azure load balancer and load balance the web service access for external connections over TCP port 80. 

To do that I will need to do the following tasks,

1. Setup new resource group

2. Setup two new windows VM

3. Setup IIS with sample web page

4. Create Azure load balancer

5. Create a backend pool

6. Create health probes

7. Create load balancer rule

8. Testing

For the configuration process, I will be using Azure PowerShell. Therefore, please make sure you have Azure PowerShell module installed. More info about it can find under https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/azure/install-az-ps?view=azps-2.6.0

Setup new resource group

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

2. Then create a new resource group using,

New-AzResourceGroup -Name REBELRG1 -Location "East US"

In the above, REBELRG1 is the resource group name and East US is the resource group location.

Setup two new windows VM

1. In this demo, I am going to use two back end servers. Before VM setup, let's go ahead and create a new virtual network. 

$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

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.

2. Then I need to create a new availability set. To add back end servers to load balancer, those VMs need to be in the same availability set. 

New-AzAvailabilitySet -Location "East US" -Name "REBELAS1" -ResourceGroupName "REBELRG1" -Sku aligned -PlatformFaultDomainCount 2 -PlatformUpdateDomainCount 2

In above REBELAS1 is the availability group name. More info about scale sets can found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/availability

3. As the next step of the configuration, I am going to create two new virtual machines under REBELRG1 resource group. 

$mylogin = Get-Credential

New-AzVm -ResourceGroupName REBELRG1 -Name "REBELTVM01" -Location "East US" -VirtualNetworkName "REBELVN1" -SubnetName "vmsubnet" -addressprefix 10.0.2.0/24 -PublicIpAddressName "REBELTVM01IP1" -AvailabilitySetName "REBELAS1" -OpenPorts 3389,80 -Image win2019datacenter -Size Standard_D2s_v3 -Credential $mylogin

New-AzVm -ResourceGroupName REBELRG1 -Name "REBELTVM02" -Location "East US" -VirtualNetworkName "REBELVN1" -SubnetName "vmsubnet" -addressprefix 10.0.2.0/24 -PublicIpAddressName "REBELTVM02IP1" -AvailabilitySetName "REBELAS1" -OpenPorts 3389,80 -Image win2019datacenter -Size Standard_D2s_v3 -Credential $mylogin

In the above, I am creating two virtual machines called REBELTVM01 & REBELTVM02. It is running windows server 2019 data center edition. I have specified it using -Image parameter. It also using Standard_D2s_v3 vm size. For networking, It uses REBELVN1 virtual network and subnet 10.0.2.0/24. [Read more…] about Step-by-Step Guide: How to setup an Azure load balancer? (PowerShell Guide)

Step-by-Step Guide: How to setup Azure load balancer?

The role of a load balancer is to improve the availability of services by distributing the load to a pool of back end servers. When it comes to load balancing, Azure has a few different products to choose from. 

• Azure Application Gateway – If you require a load balancer that can provide features such as SSL offloading, reverse proxy and works in the application layer (layer 7), Azure application gateway is the answer.

• Azure Traffic Manager – If you are looking for DNS level load balancing which can distribute traffic to global endpoints, Azure traffic manager will be the product to look at. 

• Azure Load Balancer – Azure load balancer works in layer 4 (transport layer) and can distribute network traffic to endpoints in the same Azure region. It can use to distribute internet traffic as well as internal traffic. In this post, we are going to look into this service in detail. 

Like many other load balancers, Azure load balancer also has the following components. 

• Frontend/Virtual IP address – This is the load balancer IP address that works as a front door to clients. After clients initiate connections to a frontend IP address, the traffic will be distributed to the back-end servers. 

• Server pool – The back-end application servers will be group together in a pool to serve an incoming request from a load balancer. 

• Rules – The incoming traffic will be distributed to the backend servers according to the rules defined in the load balancer.  

• Probes – If a back-end server is down, load balancer needs to know. Then it can stop distributing traffic to the faulty server. The load balancer uses probs to detect the health of the back-end servers. 

• Inbound NAT rules – Inbound NAT rules define how the traffic is forward from the load balancer to the back-end server. 

In this post, I am going to demonstrate how we can load balance a web application using Azure standard load balancer. This demo includes the following tasks,

1. Setup new resource group

2. Setup two new windows VM

3. Setup IIS with sample web page

4. Create Azure load balancer

5. Create a backend pool

6. Create health probes

7. Create load balancer rule

8. Testing

Setup new resource group

Let's go ahead and start the setup process by creating new Azure resource group. 

For the configuration process, I will be using Azure 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-2.6.0

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

2. Then create a new resource group using,

New-AzResourceGroup -Name REBELRG1 -Location "East US"

In the above, REBELRG1 is the resource group name and East US is the resource group location.

Setup two new windows VM

1. In this demo, I am going to use two back end servers. Before VM setup, let's go ahead and create a new virtual network. 

$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

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.

2. Then I need to create a new availability set. To add back end servers to load balancer, those VMs need to be in the same availability set. 

New-AzAvailabilitySet -Location "EastUS" -Name "REBELAS1" -ResourceGroupName "REBELRG1" -Sku aligned -PlatformFaultDomainCount 2 -PlatformUpdateDomainCount 2

In above REBELAS1 is the availability group name. More info about scale sets can found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/availability

3. As the next step of the configuration, I am going to create two new virtual machines under REBELRG1 resource group. 

$mylogin = Get-Credential

New-AzVm -ResourceGroupName REBELRG1 -Name "REBELTVM01" -Location "East US" -VirtualNetworkName "REBELVN1" -SubnetName "vmsubnet" -addressprefix 10.0.2.0/24 -PublicIpAddressName "REBELTVM01IP1" -AvailabilitySetName "REBELAS1" -OpenPorts 3389,80 -Image win2019datacenter -Size Standard_D2s_v3 -Credential $mylogin

New-AzVm -ResourceGroupName REBELRG1 -Name "REBELTVM02" -Location "East US" -VirtualNetworkName "REBELVN1" -SubnetName "vmsubnet" -addressprefix 10.0.2.0/24 -PublicIpAddressName "REBELTVM02IP1" -AvailabilitySetName "REBELAS1" -OpenPorts 3389,80 -Image win2019datacenter -Size Standard_D2s_v3 -Credential $mylogin

In the above, I am creating two virtual machines called REBELTVM01 & REBELTVM02. It is running windows server 2019 data center edition. I have specified it using -Image parameter. It also using Standard_D2s_v3 vm size. For networking, It uses REBELVN1 virtual network and subnet 10.0.2.0/24. [Read more…] about Step-by-Step Guide: How to setup Azure load balancer?