Azure Load Balancing
Azure Load Balancing is a core feature of Microsoft Azure’s cloud services, designed to distribute incoming network traffic across multiple resources, such as virtual machines (VMs) or containers. This ensures high availability, scalability, and fault tolerance for applications hosted in the Azure cloud.
Load balancing helps you handle traffic efficiently, improve application performance, and maintain reliability even during failures or traffic spikes.
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Types of Load Balancers in Azure
Azure offers several types of load balancers, each tailored to specific use cases:
Azure Load Balancer
- Layer: Operates at Layer 4 (Transport Layer) of the OSI model.
- Traffic Type: Supports both inbound and outbound traffic.
- Use Case: Internal or external load balancing of VMs, containers, or other services.
- Key Features:
- Low latency and high throughput.
- Health probes to monitor backend resources.
- Integration with Virtual Network (VNet).
- Scenarios:
- Distributing web traffic among VMs.
- Balancing traffic within a virtual network.
Azure Application Gateway
- Layer: Operates at Layer 7 (Application Layer) of the OSI model.
- Traffic Type: Handles HTTP/HTTPS traffic.
- Use Case: Application delivery with advanced routing capabilities.
- Key Features:
- URL-based routing.
- SSL termination for secure traffic handling.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) integration for security.
- Scenarios:
- Serving multiple websites from a single gateway using path-based routing.
- Protecting applications from common web vulnerabilities.
Azure Traffic Manager
- Layer: DNS-based traffic routing (does not operate directly on OSI layers).
- Traffic Type: Global traffic distribution.
- Use Case: Directing user traffic to the nearest or most appropriate Azure region.
- Key Features:
- Geographic routing.
- Weighted routing for testing deployments.
- Latency-based routing.
- Scenarios:
- Directing traffic to regional Azure services for reduced latency.
- Disaster recovery with failover between regions.
Azure Front Door
- Layer: Operates at Layer 7 (Application Layer).
- Traffic Type: Global web traffic distribution.
- Use Case: Modern Content Delivery Network (CDN) with intelligent routing.
- Key Features:
- SSL termination and custom domains.
- Application acceleration through caching.
- Built-in DDoS protection.
- Scenarios:
- Speeding up global application delivery.
- Protecting against DDoS attacks while routing traffic.
Comparing Load Balancing Solutions
| Feature/Service | Azure Load Balancer | Application Gateway | Traffic Manager | Azure Front Door |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OSI Layer | Layer 4 | Layer 7 | DNS-based | Layer 7 |
| Traffic Type | Any protocol | HTTP/HTTPS | DNS-based | HTTP/HTTPS |
| Use Case | Low-latency traffic within a VNet | Application delivery | Global traffic routing | Web traffic acceleration |
| Security Features | None | WAF, SSL termination | None | DDoS protection, SSL |
| Geographic Routing | No | No | Yes | Yes |
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