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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: DNS based traffic load balancing with Azure Traffic Manager (PowerShell Guide)

In my previous blog post, I explained how to setup an Azure Traffic Manager. In there, I used GUI method to set it up. In this post I am going to show how we can set up Azure Traffic Manager using Azure PowerShell.

In this demo, I am going to demonstrate how we can use Azure traffic managers to improve the application/service performance by pointing users to the closest endpoint. This demo includes the following tasks,

1. Setup two new resource groups (East US, UK South)
2. Setup two new windows VM (East US, UK South)
3. Setup IIS with sample web page
4. Create a Traffic Manager profile
5. Add endpoints to Traffic Manager profile
6. Testing

Setup two new resource groups (East US, UK South)

Let’s go ahead and start the setup process by creating a 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 REBELRGEUS -Location “East US”
New-AzResourceGroup -Name REBELRGUKS -Location “UK South”

In the above, we are creating two resource groups. The first one called REBELRGEUS and it is created on East US Azure region.
The second group is called REBELRGUKS and it is created on UK South azure region.

Setup two new windows VM (East US, UK South)

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 in 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

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 let’s go ahead and create another virtual network under REBELRGUKS resource group.

$vmsubnet2 = New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name vmsubnet2 -AddressPrefix “10.1.3.0/24”

New-AzVirtualNetwork -Name REBELVN2 -ResourceGroupName REBELRGUKS -Location “UK South” -AddressPrefix “10.1.0.0/16” -Subnet $vmsubnet2

In the above, REBELVN2 is the new virtual network name. It has 10.1.0.0/16 address space. It also has a new subnet 10.1.3.0/24 (vmsubnet2) for virtual machines.

3. As the next step of the configuration, I am going to create a new virtual machine under REBELRGEUS resource group. This will be used for testing purposes.

$mylogin = Get-Credential

New-AzVm -ResourceGroupName REBELRGEUS -Name “REBELTVMEUS” -Location “East US” -VirtualNetworkName “REBELVN1” -SubnetName “vmsubnet” -addressprefix 10.0.2.0/24 -PublicIpAddressName “REBELTVMEUSIP1” -OpenPorts 3389,80 -Image win2019datacenter -Size Standard_D2s_v3 -Credential $mylogin

[Read more…] about Step-by-Step Guide: DNS based traffic load balancing with Azure Traffic Manager (PowerShell Guide)

Step-by-Step Guide: DNS based traffic load balancing with Azure Traffic Manager

In my previous blog post, I explain how we can use Azure load balancer to distribute network traffic to endpoints in the same Azure region. It can be accessed using https://www.rebeladmin.com/2020/01/step-step-guide-setup-azure-load-balancer/ . But we can’t use the same method to distribute traffic to different Azure regions. For that, we have to use the Azure Traffic Manager.

The azure traffic manager is a DNS based traffic load balancer. It does have the following characteristics,

• Based on the traffic-routing method, it can route traffic to the closest endpoints to the user. This will improve the application/service performance.
• When an endpoint is not available, the traffic will automatically route to the most appropriate endpoint.
• Application/service maintenance can be done without any downtime. During the maintenance, traffic can redirect to other available endpoints.

In this demo, I am going to demonstrate how we can use Azure traffic managers to improve the application/service performance by pointing users to the closest endpoint. This demo includes the following tasks,

1. Setup two new resource groups (East US, UK South)
2. Setup two new windows VM (East US, UK South)
3. Setup IIS with sample web page
4. Create a Traffic Manager profile
5. Add endpoints to Traffic Manager profile
6. Testing

Setup two new resource groups (East US, UK South)

Let’s go ahead and start the setup process by creating a 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 REBELRGEUS -Location “East US”

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

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

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

[Read more…] about Step-by-Step Guide: DNS based traffic load balancing with Azure Traffic Manager

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?