Azure-Advanced-Networking

M04-Unit 4 Create and configure an Azure load balancer

In this exercise, you will create an internal load balancer for the fictional Contoso Ltd organization.

Note: An interactive lab simulation is available that allows you to click through this lab at your own pace. You may find slight differences between the interactive simulation and the hosted lab, but the core concepts and ideas being demonstrated are the same.

Estimated time: 30 minutes

The steps to create an internal load balancer, are very similar to those you have already learned about in this module, to create a public load balancer. The key difference is that with a public load balancer the front end is accessed via a public IP address, and you test connectivity from a host which is located outside your virtual network; whereas, with an internal load balancer, the front end is a private IP address inside your virtual network, and you test connectivity from a host inside the same network.

The diagram below illustrates the environment you will be deploying in this exercise.

In this exercise, you will:

• Task 1: Create the virtual network
• Task 2: Create backend servers
• Task 3: Create the load balancer
• Task 4: Create load balancer resources
• Task 5: Test the load balancer

Task 1: Create the virtual network

In this section, you will create a virtual network and a subnet.

1. Log in to the Azure portal.

2. On any Azure Portal page, in Search resources, services and docs, enter virtual network, and then select Virtual networks from the results.

3. On the Virtual networks page, select +Create.

4. On the Create virtual networks blade, on the Basics tab, use the information in the following table to create the VNet:

   Setting	Value
   Subscription	Select your subscription
   Resource group	Select Create new Name: IntLB-RG
   Name	IntLB-VNet
   Region	(US) East US

5. Click Next.

6. On the Create virtual networks blade, on the Security tab Click Next.

7. On the Create virtual networks blade, on the IP addresses tab: In the existing Address space section, under Subnets, select the default link.

8. On the Edit subnet blade, under Subnet details: Change the Name to MyBackendSubnet.

9. Click Save

10. In the Address space section. Click Add a subnet

11. Create a subnet with the following Subnet settings (leave other settings with their default values):

    Setting	Value
    Subnet template	Default
    Name	MyFrontendSubnet
    Starting address	10.0.1.0
    Subnet size	/24 (32 addresses)

12. Click Add

13. Click Review and Create. Let validation occur, and click Create again to submit your deployment.

Task 2: Create backend servers

In this section, you will create three VMs, that will be in the same availability set, for the backend pool of the load balancer, add the VMs to the backend pool, and then install IIS on the three VMs to test the load balancer.

1. On the Azure portal, open the PowerShell session within the Cloud Shell pane.

2. On the toolbar of the Cloud Shell pane, select the Manage files icon, in the drop-down menu, select Upload, and upload the following files azuredeploy.json, azuredeploy.parameters.json into the Cloud Shell home directory from the source folder C:\Allfiles\M04..

3. Deploy the following ARM templates to create the VMs needed for this exercise:

   Note: You will be prompted to provide an Admin password. Use Pa55w.rd1234abc

   $RGName = "IntLB-RG"
      
   New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -ResourceGroupName $RGName -TemplateFile azuredeploy.json -TemplateParameterFile azuredeploy.parameters.json
   

Note It may take 10-20 mins to create these three VMs. Wait for the deployment to finish before moving to the next task

Task 3: Create the load balancer

In this section, you will create an internal Standard SKU load balancer.

1. On the Azure portal home page, select Create a resource.

2. On the search box at the top of the page, type Load, then select Load Balancers from the Services list.

3. In the Load Balancing Blade, make sure that Load Balancer is selected.

4. Select + Create.

5. On the Basics tab, use the information in the table below to create the load balancer.

   Setting	Value
   Subscription	Select your subscription
   Resource group	IntLB-RG
   Name	myIntLoadBalancer
   Region	(US) East US
   SKU	Standard
   Type	Internal
   Tier	Regional

6. Select Next: Frontend IP configurations.

7. Select + Add a frontend IP configuration

8. On the Add frontend IP address blade, enter the information from the table below.

   Setting	Value
   Name	LoadBalancerFrontEnd
   Virtual network	IntLB-VNet
   Subnet	myFrontEndSubnet
   Assignment	Dynamic
   Availability zone	No Zone

9. Click Save

10. Select Next : Backend pools.

11. Select + Add a backend pool

12. On the Add backend pool blade, enter the information from the table below.

Setting	Value
Name	myBackendPool
Virtual network	IntLB-VNet
Backend Pool Configuration	NIC

1. Under IP Configurations, select + Add.

2. On the Add IP configurations to backend pool blade.

3. Select the checkboxes for all 3 VMs (myVM1, myVM2, and myVM3), then select Add.

4. Back on the Add backend pool blade: Select Save

5. On the Create load balancer blade: Select Next : inbound rules

6. On the Inbound rules tab, under Load balancing rule: Select + Add a load balancing rule

7. On the Add load balancing rule page, enter the information from the table below.

   Setting	Value
   Name	myHTTPRule
   IP Version	IPv4
   Frontend IP address	Select LoadBalancerFrontEnd from drop-down list
   Backend pool	Select myBackendPool from drop-down list
   High Avaialability Ports	Unchecked
   Protocol	TCP
   Port	80
   Backend port	80
   Health probe	Select: Create new

8. On the Add health probe pop-up blade: Enter the information in the table below.

   Setting	Value
   Name	myHealthProbe
   Protocol	TCP
   Port	80
   Interval	5

9. Select Save

10. Back on the Add load balancing rule blade: click Save

11. Back on the Create load balancer blade: click Review + create

12. Wait for validation to complete.

13. Click Create

14. Wait for deployment to complete.

Task 5: Test the load balancer

In this section, you will create a test VM, and then test the load balancer.

Create test VM

1. On the Azure portal home page, select Create a resource, then virtual, then select Virtual machine (if this resource type is not listed on the page, use the search box at the top of the page to search for it and select it).

2. On the Create a virtual machine page, on the Basics tab, use the information in the table below to create the first VM.

   Setting	Value
   Subscription	Select your subscription
   Resource group	IntLB-RG
   Virtual machine name	myTestVM
   Region	(US) East US
   Availability options	No infrastructure redundancy required
   Image	Windows Server 2019 Datacenter - Gen 2
   Size	Standard_DS2_v3 - 2 vcpu, 8 GiB memory
   Username	TestUser
   Password	Pa55w.rd1234abc
   Confirm password	Pa55w.rd1234abc

3. Select Next : Disks, then select Next : Networking.

4. On the Networking tab, use the information in the table below to configure networking settings. Leave all other settings at their default settings.

   Setting	Value
   Virtual network	IntLB-VNet
   Subnet	myBackendSubnet

   Leave all other settings as default. |

5. Select Review + create.

6. Select Create.

7. Wait for this last VM to be deployed before moving forward with the next task.

Connect to the test VM to test the load balancer

1. On the Azure portal home page, select All resources, then select on myIntLoadBalancer from the resources list.

2. On the Overview page, make a note of the Private IP address, or copy it to the clipboard. Note: you may need to select See more in order to see the Private IP address field.

3. On the Azure Portal home page, select Virtual Machines.

4. Select MyTestVM.

5. On MyTestVM, select Connect > Connect.

6. On MyTestVM

   Connect, select Download RDP file.

7. Save the RDP file to your desktop.

8. Connect to MyTestVM using the RDP file, and the username TestUser and the password Pa55w.rd1234abc.

9. If prompted, in Networks, select Yes.

10. Select the Internet Explorer icon in the task bar to open the web browser.

11. Select OK on the Set up Internet Explorer 11 dialog box.

12. Enter (or paste) the Private IP address (e.g. 10.0.0.4) from the previous step into the address bar of the browser and press Enter.

13. The default web home page of the IIS Web server is displayed in the browser window. One of the three virtual machines in the backend pool will respond.

Clean up resources

Note: Remember to remove any newly created Azure resources that you no longer use. Removing unused resources ensures you will not see unexpected charges.

1. On the Azure portal, open the PowerShell session within the Cloud Shell pane.

2. Delete all resource groups you created throughout the labs of this module by running the following command:

   Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name 'IntLB-RG' -Force -AsJob
   

   Note: The command executes asynchronously (as determined by the -AsJob parameter), so while you will be able to run another PowerShell command immediately afterwards within the same PowerShell session, it will take a few minutes before the resource groups are actually removed.