Module 6 - Configure Azure Load Balancer

Question 1

What is a load balancer?

Answer 1

A load balancer is a network device or software application that distributes incoming network traffic or application requests across multiple servers or resources. The primary purpose of a load balancer is to ensure that no single server or resource becomes overwhelmed with traffic, thus improving the availability, scalability, and reliability of a network or application.

Question 2

What are the types of load Balancers?

Answer 2

Front end Load balancer:

1. The frontend load balancer is the component that faces the external clients or users, such as web browsers or mobile devices.
2. Its primary role is to receive incoming requests from clients and distribute them to the appropriate backend servers based on predefined rules or algorithms.
3. It acts as the entry point to the network or application and is typically the first point of contact for external requests.

Backend Load balancer:
1. The backend load balancer operates on the server-side, managing the distribution of client requests to multiple backend servers that actually handle the application or service’s workload.

2. Its primary responsibility is to evenly distribute incoming requests to the backend servers, ensuring that no single server is overwhelmed while optimizing resource utilization.
3. The backend load balancer monitors the health and performance of the backend servers, periodically checking their status and making routing decisions based on server availability.

Question 3

Choose a load Balancer solution

Answer 3

Load Balancer:
Usage -
Protocols
Private
Global
ENV
Security

Application gateway:
Usage -
Protocols - HTTP , HTTPS , HTTP2
Private - Yes
Global - n/a
ENV - Azure , non azure cloud , on prem
Security - WAF

Question 4

Implement a public Load Balancer

Answer 4

Maps public ip addresses and port number of incoming traffic to the VMS private IP address and port number , vice versa

Apply load balancing rules to distribute traffic across VMs or services

Question 5

Implement an Internal Load balancer

Answer 5

Directs traffic only to resources inside virtual network or that use a VPN to access azure infrastructure.

Frontend IP addresses and virtual networks are never directly exposed to an internet endpoint

Enables load balancing within a virtual network , for cross-prem virtaul network , multi-tier apps and for line of business apps

Question 6

Determine Load balance SKU’S

Answer 6

Basic SKU:
Backend pool size - 300 ip configurations , single availability set

Health probes - TCP , HTTP

Availability zones -

Secure by default -

SLA -

Standard SKU:

Backend pool

Health probes

Availability zones -

Secure by default -

SLA -

Question 7

Create load Balancer rules

Question 8

What is the function of an Internal Load Balancer , external and network load balancer?

Answer 8

Internal Load Balancer:

The function of an internal load balancer is to distribute network traffic among multiple backend server’s or VM’s within a private network. Such as distributing database queries across multiple database servers in a private network

External Load Balancer:
Distributes incoming internet traffic across multiple servers to ensure high availability and scalability. Such as distributing HTTP/HTTPS traffic among multiple web servers to handle user requests

Network load balancers operate at the transport layer( Layer 4) and designed to handle TCP/UDP traffic. Such as distributing computational task across a cluster of servers

Question 9

What