Azure Load Balancer: Overview
Azure Load Balancer is a high-performance, fully managed Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) load balancing service provided by Microsoft Azure.
It is designed to distribute incoming network traffic across multiple backend resources, such as virtual machines (VMs), virtual machine scale sets, or IP addresses, ensuring high availability and reliability.
Key Features of Azure Load Balancer
1. Layer 4 Load Balancing
Operates at the transport layer (TCP and UDP protocols).
Supports high-throughput and low-latency traffic distribution.
2. Inbound and Outbound Traffic Handling
Distributes inbound traffic to backend resources.
Manages outbound connections to ensure proper routing.
3. Automatic Reconfiguration
Detects backend health and automatically reconfigures to avoid unhealthy endpoints.
4. Scalability
Scales seamlessly with application demand.
Offers support for large-scale, high-throughput workloads.
5. Health Probes
Performs periodic health checks on backend resources to ensure traffic is sent only to healthy instances.
6. Multiple Deployment Models
Public Load Balancer: Distributes traffic coming from the internet.
Internal Load Balancer (ILB): Handles traffic within a private virtual network (VNet).
7. Zone Redundancy
Distributes traffic across multiple availability zones to ensure resilience.
8. Multi-Region Support
Enables global redundancy and disaster recovery with traffic routing across multiple regions.
Types of Azure Load Balancers
1. Public Load Balancer
Exposes a public IP address for applications.
Used for web applications and APIs accessible from the internet.
2. Internal Load Balancer
Operates within a private virtual network.
Ideal for internal applications, databases, or microservices architecture.
Components of Azure Load Balancer
1. Frontend IP Configuration
Represents the IP address that receives incoming traffic.
Can be public or private, depending on the load balancer type.
2. Backend Pool
A group of virtual machines or resources that receive traffic.
3. Health Probes
Periodically check the availability and health of resources in the backend pool.
4. Load Balancing Rules
Define how traffic is distributed across backend resources based on ports and protocols.
Common Use Cases
1. High Availability for Applications
Ensures that traffic is routed only to healthy backend resources.
2. Scaling Applications
Distributes traffic evenly to handle higher loads.
3. Hybrid Cloud Scenarios
Routes traffic between on-premises and Azure environments.
4. Database Layer Load Balancing
Balances traffic for high-throughput databases or big data clusters.
5. Microservices and Containers
Balances traffic among container instances or microservices.
Benefits
1. Improved Reliability
Prevents single points of failure by distributing traffic to multiple instances.
2. Cost-Effectiveness
Pay-as-you-go pricing model.
3. Integration with Azure Ecosystem
Works seamlessly with Azure services like Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and more.
4. Ease of Management
Fully managed by Azure, reducing operational overhead.
Limits and Pricing
1. Limits
The maximum number of rules, backend pools, and IP configurations may vary based on the SKU used (Basic or Standard).
Standard Load Balancer supports more advanced scenarios like availability zones and global balancing.
2. Pricing
Costs depend on data processed, the number of configured rules, and outbound data transfers.
Public Load Balancer incurs additional charges for outbound traffic.
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