title | titleSuffix | description | services | author | ms.service | ms.topic | ms.date | ms.author | ms.custom |
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Quickstart: Create an internal load balancer - Azure portal |
Azure Load Balancer |
Learn to create an internal Azure Load Balancer and test it with two virtual machines. Learn how to configure traffic rules and health probes to distribute traffic across multiple VMs. |
load-balancer |
mbender-ms |
azure-load-balancer |
quickstart |
06/28/2024 |
mbender |
mvc, mode-ui, template-quickstart, engagement-fy24 |
Get started with Azure Load Balancer by using the Azure portal to create an internal load balancer for a backend pool with two virtual machines. Other resources include Azure Bastion, NAT Gateway, a virtual network, and the required subnets.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-load-balancer-standard-internal-portal/internal-load-balancer-resources.png" alt-text="Diagram of resources deployed for internal load balancer." lightbox="media/quickstart-load-balancer-standard-internal-portal/internal-load-balancer-resources.png":::
Note
In this example you'll create a NAT gateway to provide outbound Internet access. The outbound rules tab in the configuration is bypassed and isn't needed with the NAT gateway. For more information on Azure NAT gateway, see What is Azure Virtual Network NAT? For more information about outbound connections in Azure, see Source Network Address Translation (SNAT) for outbound connections
- An Azure account with an active subscription. Create an account for free.
Sign in to the Azure portal.
[!INCLUDE load-balancer-nat-gateway]
[!INCLUDE load-balancer-create-bastion]
In this section, you create a load balancer that load balances virtual machines.
During the creation of the load balancer, you configure:
- Frontend IP address
- Backend pool
- Inbound load-balancing rules
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In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Load balancer. Select Load balancers in the search results.
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In the Load balancer page, select Create.
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In the Basics tab of the Create load balancer page, enter, or select the following information:
Setting Value Project details Subscription Select your subscription. Resource group Select load-balancer-rg. Instance details Name Enter load-balancer. Region Select East US. SKU Leave the default Standard. Type Select Internal. Tier Leave the default of Regional. :::image type="content" source="./media/quickstart-load-balancer-standard-internal-portal/create-standard-internal-load-balancer.png" alt-text="Screenshot of create standard load balancer basics tab." border="true":::
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Select Next: Frontend IP configuration at the bottom of the page.
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In Frontend IP configuration, select + Add a frontend IP configuration, then enter or select the following information:
Setting Value Name Enter lb-frontend. Private IP address version Select IPv4 or IPv6 depending on your requirements. Setting Value Name Enter lb-frontend. Virtual network Select lb-vnet. Subnet Select backend-subnet. Assignment Select Dynamic. Availability zone Select Zone-redundant. -
Select Add.
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Select Next: Backend pools at the bottom of the page.
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In the Backend pools tab, select + Add a backend pool.
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Enter lb-backend-pool for Name in Add backend pool.
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Select IP Address for Backend Pool Configuration.
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Select Save.
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Select the Next: Inbound rules button at the bottom of the page.
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In Load balancing rule in the Inbound rules tab, select + Add a load balancing rule.
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In Add load balancing rule, enter or select the following information:
Setting Value Name Enter lb-HTTP-rule. IP Version Select IPv4 or IPv6 depending on your requirements. Frontend IP address Select lb-frontend. Backend pool Select lb-backend-pool. Protocol Select TCP. Port Enter 80. Backend port Enter 80. Health probe Select Create new.
In Name, enter lb-health-probe.
Select TCP in Protocol.
Leave the rest of the defaults, and select Save.Session persistence Select None. Idle timeout (minutes) Enter or select 15. Enable TCP reset Select checkbox. Enable Floating IP Leave the default of unselected. -
Select Save.
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Select the blue Review + create button at the bottom of the page.
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Select Create.
[!INCLUDE load-balancer-create-2-virtual-machines]
[!INCLUDE ephemeral-ip-note.md]
In this section, you create a VM named lb-TestVM. This VM is used to test the load balancer configuration.
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In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Virtual machine. Select Virtual machines in the search results.
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In Virtual machines, select + Create > Azure virtual machine.
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In Create a virtual machine, enter or select the values in the Basics tab:
Setting Value Project Details Subscription Select your Azure subscription. Resource Group Select load-balancer-rg. Instance details Virtual machine name Enter lb-TestVM. Region Select (US) East US. Availability Options Select No infrastructure redundancy required. Security type Select Standard. Image Select Windows Server 2022 Datacenter - x64 Gen2. Azure Spot instance Leave the default of unselected. Size Choose VM size or take default setting. Administrator account Username Enter a username. Password Enter a password. Confirm password Reenter password. Inbound port rules Public inbound ports Select None. -
Select the Networking tab, or select Next: Disks, then Next: Networking.
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In the Networking tab, select or enter:
Setting Value Network interface Virtual network lb-vnet. Subnet backend-subnet. Public IP Select None. NIC network security group Select Advanced. Configure network security group Select lb-NSG created in the previous step. -
Select Review + create.
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Review the settings, and then select Create.
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In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Virtual machine. Select Virtual machines in the search results.
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Select lb-vm1.
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In the Overview page, select Connect, then Bastion.
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Enter the username and password entered during VM creation.
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Select Connect.
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On the server desktop, navigate to Windows Administrative Tools > Windows PowerShell > Windows PowerShell.
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In the PowerShell Window, execute the following commands to:
- Install the IIS server.
- Remove the default iisstart.htm file.
- Add a new iisstart.htm file that displays the name of the VM.
# Install IIS server role Install-WindowsFeature -name Web-Server -IncludeManagementTools # Remove default htm file Remove-Item C:\inetpub\wwwroot\iisstart.htm # Add a new htm file that displays server name Add-Content -Path "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\iisstart.htm" -Value $("Hello World from " + $env:computername)
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Close the Bastion session with lb-vm1.
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Repeat steps 1 through 8 to install IIS and the updated iisstart.htm file on lb-VM2.
In this section, you test the load balancer by connecting to the lb-TestVM and verifying the webpage.
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In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Load balancer. Select Load balancers in the search results.
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Select load-balancer.
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Make note or copy the address next to Private IP address in the Overview of load-balancer. If you can't see the Private IP address field, select See more in the information window.
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In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Virtual machine. Select Virtual machines in the search results.
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Select lb-TestVM.
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In the Overview page, select Connect, then Bastion.
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Enter the username and password entered during VM creation.
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Open Microsoft Edge on lb-TestVM.
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Enter the IP address from the previous step into the address bar of the browser. The custom page displaying one of the backend server names is displayed on the browser. In this example, it's 10.1.0.4.
:::image type="content" source="./media/quickstart-load-balancer-standard-internal-portal/load-balancer-test.png" alt-text="Screenshot shows a browser window displaying the customized page, as expected." border="true":::
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To see the load balancer distribute traffic across both VMs, navigate to the VM shown in the browser message, and stop the VM.
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Refresh the browser window. The page should still display the customized page. The load balancer is now only sending traffic to the remaining VM.
When no longer needed, delete the resource group, load balancer, and all related resources. To do so, select the resource group load-balancer-rg that contains the resources and then select Delete.
In this quickstart, you:
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Created an internal Azure Load Balancer
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Attached 2 VMs to the load balancer
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Configured the load balancer traffic rule, health probe, and then tested the load balancer
To learn more about Azure Load Balancer, continue to:
[!div class="nextstepaction"] What is Azure Load Balancer?