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Deploy an IPv6 dual stack application using Standard Internal Load Balancer in Azure using PowerShell

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This article shows you how to deploy a dual stack (IPv4 + IPv6) application in Azure that includes a dual stack virtual network and subnet, a Standard Internal Load Balancer with dual (IPv4 + IPv6) frontend configurations, VMs with NICs that have a dual IP configuration, network security group, and public IPs.

The procedure to create an IPv6-capable Internal Load Balancer is nearly identical to the process for creating an Internet-facing IPv6 Load Balancer described here. The only differences for creating an internal load balancer are in the frontend configuration as illustrated in the PowerShell example below:

 $frontendIPv6 = New-AzLoadBalancerFrontendIpConfig `
 -Name "dsLbFrontEnd_v6" `
 -PrivateIpAddress "fd00:db8:deca:deed::100" `
 -PrivateIpAddressVersion "IPv6" `
 -Subnet $DsSubnet

The changes that make the above an internal load balancer frontend configuration are:

  • The PrivateIpAddressVersion is specified as “IPv6”
  • The -PublicIpAddress argument has been either omitted or replaced with -PrivateIpAddress. Note that the private address must be in the range of the Subnet IP space in which the internal load balancer will be deployed. If a static -PrivateIpAddress is omitted, the next free IPv6 address will be selected from the subnet in which the internal load Balancer is deployed.
  • The dual stack subnet in which the internal load balancer will be deployed is specified with either a -Subnet or -SubnetId argument.

Azure Cloud Shell

Azure hosts Azure Cloud Shell, an interactive shell environment that you can use through your browser. You can use either Bash or PowerShell with Cloud Shell to work with Azure services. You can use the Cloud Shell preinstalled commands to run the code in this article, without having to install anything on your local environment.

To start Azure Cloud Shell:

Option Example/Link
Select Try It in the upper-right corner of a code or command block. Selecting Try It doesn't automatically copy the code or command to Cloud Shell. Screenshot that shows an example of Try It for Azure Cloud Shell.
Go to https://shell.azure.com, or select the Launch Cloud Shell button to open Cloud Shell in your browser. Button to launch Azure Cloud Shell.
Select the Cloud Shell button on the menu bar at the upper right in the Azure portal. Screenshot that shows the Cloud Shell button in the Azure portal

To use Azure Cloud Shell:

  1. Start Cloud Shell.

  2. Select the Copy button on a code block (or command block) to copy the code or command.

  3. Paste the code or command into the Cloud Shell session by selecting Ctrl+Shift+V on Windows and Linux, or by selecting Cmd+Shift+V on macOS.

  4. Select Enter to run the code or command.

If you choose to install and use PowerShell locally, this article requires the Azure PowerShell module version 6.9.0 or later. Run Get-Module -ListAvailable Az to find the installed version. If you need to upgrade, see Install Azure PowerShell module. If you are running PowerShell locally, you also need to run Connect-AzAccount to create a connection with Azure.

Create a resource group

Before you can create your dual-stack virtual network, you must create a resource group with New-AzResourceGroup. The following example creates a resource group named dsStd_ILB_RG in the east us location:

$rg = New-AzResourceGroup `
  -ResourceGroupName "dsStd_ILB_RG"  `
  -Location "east us"

Create IPv4 and IPv6 public IP addresses

To access your virtual machines from the Internet, you need IPv4 and IPv6 public IP addresses for the VMs. Create public IP addresses with New-AzPublicIpAddress. The following example creates IPv4 and IPv6 public IP address named RdpPublicIP_1 and RdpPublicIP_2 in the dsStd_ILB_RG resource group:

$RdpPublicIP_1 = New-AzPublicIpAddress `
  -Name "RdpPublicIP_1" `
  -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $rg.Location  `
  -AllocationMethod Static `
  -IpAddressVersion IPv4  `
  -sku Standard
  
$RdpPublicIP_2 = New-AzPublicIpAddress `
  -Name "RdpPublicIP_2" `
  -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $rg.Location  `
  -AllocationMethod Static `
  -IpAddressVersion IPv6  `
  -sku Standard

Create the virtual network and the subnet

Create a virtual network using New-AzVirtualNetwork with dual stack a subnet configuration using New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig. The following example creates a virtual network named dsVnet with dsSubnet.

# Create dual stack subnet config
$DsSubnet = New-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig `
  -Name "dsSubnet" `
  -AddressPrefix "10.0.0.0/24","fd00:db8:deca:deed::/64"

# Create the virtual network
$vnet = New-AzVirtualNetwork `
  -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $rg.Location  `
  -Name "dsVnet" `
  -AddressPrefix "10.0.0.0/16","fd00:db8:deca::/48"  `
  -Subnet $DsSubnet

#Refresh the fully populated subnet for use in load balancer frontend configuration
$DsSubnet = get-AzVirtualNetworkSubnetconfig -name dsSubnet -VirtualNetwork $vnet

Create Standard Load Balancer

In this section, you configure dual frontend IP (IPv4 and IPv6) and the backend address pool for the load balancer and then create a Standard Load Balancer.

Create frontend IP

Create a frontend IP with New-AzLoadBalancerFrontendIpConfig. The following example creates IPv4 and IPv6 frontend IP configurations named dsLbFrontEnd_v4 and dsLbFrontEnd_v6:

$frontendIPv4 = New-AzLoadBalancerFrontendIpConfig `
  -Name "dsLbFrontEnd_v4" `
  -PrivateIpAddress "10.0.0.100"  `
  -PrivateIpAddressVersion "IPv4"   `
  -Subnet $DsSubnet

$frontendIPv6 = New-AzLoadBalancerFrontendIpConfig `
  -Name "dsLbFrontEnd_v6" `
  -PrivateIpAddress "fd00:db8:deca:deed::100"  `
  -PrivateIpAddressVersion "IPv6"   `
  -Subnet $DsSubnet

Configure backend address pool

Create a backend address pool with New-AzLoadBalancerBackendAddressPoolConfig. The VMs attach to this backend pool in the remaining steps. The following example creates backend address pools named dsLbBackEndPool_v4 and dsLbBackEndPool_v6 to include VMs with both IPV4 and IPv6 NIC configurations:

$backendPoolv4 = New-AzLoadBalancerBackendAddressPoolConfig -Name "dsLbBackEndPool_v4"

$backendPoolv6 = New-AzLoadBalancerBackendAddressPoolConfig -Name "dsLbBackEndPool_v6"

Create a load balancer rule

A load balancer rule is used to define how traffic is distributed to the VMs. You define the frontend IP configuration for the incoming traffic and the backend IP pool to receive the traffic, along with the required source and destination port. To make sure only healthy VMs receive traffic, you can optionally define a health probe. Basic load balancer uses an IPv4 probe to assess health for both IPv4 and IPv6 endpoints on the VMs. Standard load balancer includes support for explicitly IPv6 health probes.

Create a load balancer rule with Add-AzLoadBalancerRuleConfig. The following example creates load balancer rules named dsLBrule_v4 and dsLBrule_v6 and balances traffic on TCP port 80 to the IPv4 and IPv6 frontend IP configurations:

$lbrule_v4 = New-AzLoadBalancerRuleConfig `
  -Name "dsLBrule_v4" `
  -FrontendIpConfiguration $frontendIPv4 `
  -BackendAddressPool $backendPoolv4 `
  -Protocol Tcp `
  -FrontendPort 80 `
  -BackendPort 80

$lbrule_v6 = New-AzLoadBalancerRuleConfig `
  -Name "dsLBrule_v6" `
  -FrontendIpConfiguration $frontendIPv6 `
  -BackendAddressPool $backendPoolv6 `
  -Protocol Tcp `
  -FrontendPort 80 `
  -BackendPort 80

Create load balancer

Create a Standard Load Balancer with New-AzLoadBalancer. The following example creates a public Standard Load Balancer named myInternalLoadBalancer using the IPv4 and IPv6 frontend IP configurations, backend pools, and load-balancing rules that you created in the preceding steps:

$lb = New-AzLoadBalancer  `
  -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName  `
  -Location $rg.Location  `
  -Name  "MyInternalLoadBalancer"  `
  -Sku "Standard"  `
  -FrontendIpConfiguration  $frontendIPv4,$frontendIPv6  `
  -BackendAddressPool  $backendPoolv4,$backendPoolv6  `
  -LoadBalancingRule  $lbrule_v4,$lbrule_v6

Create network resources

Before you deploy some VMs and can test your balancer, you must create supporting network resources - availability set, network security group, and virtual NICs.

Create an availability set

To improve the high availability of your application, place your VMs in an availability set.

Create an availability set with New-AzAvailabilitySet. The following example creates an availability set named dsAVset:

$avset = New-AzAvailabilitySet `
  -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $rg.Location  `
  -Name "dsAVset" `
  -PlatformFaultDomainCount 2 `
  -PlatformUpdateDomainCount 2 `
  -Sku aligned

Create network security group

Create a network security group for the rules that will govern inbound and outbound communication in your VNet.

Create a network security group rule for port 3389

Create a network security group rule to allow RDP connections through port 3389 with New-AzNetworkSecurityRuleConfig.

$rule1 = New-AzNetworkSecurityRuleConfig `
  -Name 'myNetworkSecurityGroupRuleRDP' `
  -Description 'Allow RDP' `
  -Access Allow `
  -Protocol Tcp `
  -Direction Inbound `
  -Priority 100 `
  -SourceAddressPrefix * `
  -SourcePortRange * `
  -DestinationAddressPrefix * `
  -DestinationPortRange 3389

Create a network security group rule for port 80

Create a network security group rule to allow internet connections through port 80 with New-AzNetworkSecurityRuleConfig.

$rule2 = New-AzNetworkSecurityRuleConfig `
  -Name 'myNetworkSecurityGroupRuleHTTP' `
  -Description 'Allow HTTP' `
  -Access Allow `
  -Protocol Tcp `
  -Direction Inbound `
  -Priority 200 `
  -SourceAddressPrefix * `
  -SourcePortRange 80 `
  -DestinationAddressPrefix * `
  -DestinationPortRange 80

Create a network security group

Create a network security group with New-AzNetworkSecurityGroup.

$nsg = New-AzNetworkSecurityGroup `
  -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $rg.Location  `
  -Name "dsNSG1"  `
  -SecurityRules $rule1,$rule2

Create NICs

Create virtual NICs with New-AzNetworkInterface. The following example creates two virtual NICs both with IPv4 and IPv6 configurations. (One virtual NIC for each VM you create for your app in the following steps).


# Create the IPv4 configuration for NIC 1
$Ip4Config=New-AzNetworkInterfaceIpConfig `
  -Name dsIp4Config `
  -Subnet $vnet.subnets[0] `
  -PrivateIpAddressVersion IPv4 `
  -LoadBalancerBackendAddressPool $backendPoolv4 `
  -PublicIpAddress  $RdpPublicIP_1

# Create the IPv6 configuration
$Ip6Config=New-AzNetworkInterfaceIpConfig `
  -Name dsIp6Config `
  -Subnet $vnet.subnets[0] `
  -PrivateIpAddressVersion IPv6 `
  -LoadBalancerBackendAddressPool $backendPoolv6

# Create NIC 1
$NIC_1 = New-AzNetworkInterface `
  -Name "dsNIC1" `
  -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $rg.Location  `
  -NetworkSecurityGroupId $nsg.Id `
  -IpConfiguration $Ip4Config,$Ip6Config

# Create the IPv4 configuration for NIC 2
$Ip4Config=New-AzNetworkInterfaceIpConfig `
  -Name dsIp4Config `
  -Subnet $vnet.subnets[0] `
  -PrivateIpAddressVersion IPv4 `
  -LoadBalancerBackendAddressPool $backendPoolv4 `
  -PublicIpAddress  $RdpPublicIP_2

# Create NIC 2 reusing the IPv6 configuration from NIC 1
$NIC_2 = New-AzNetworkInterface `
  -Name "dsNIC2" `
  -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName `
  -Location $rg.Location  `
  -NetworkSecurityGroupId $nsg.Id `
  -IpConfiguration $Ip4Config,$Ip6Config

Create virtual machines

Set an administrator username and password for the VMs with Get-Credential:

$cred = get-credential -Message "DUAL STACK VNET SAMPLE:  Please enter the Administrator credential to log into the VM's"

Now you can create the VMs with New-AzVM. The following example creates two VMs and the required virtual network components if they do not already exist.

$vmsize = "Standard_A2"
$ImagePublisher = "MicrosoftWindowsServer"
$imageOffer = "WindowsServer"
$imageSKU = "2019-Datacenter"

$vmName= "dsVM1"
$VMconfig1 = New-AzVMConfig -VMName $vmName -VMSize $vmsize -AvailabilitySetId $avset.Id 3> $null | Set-AzVMOperatingSystem -Windows -ComputerName $vmName -Credential $cred -ProvisionVMAgent 3> $null | Set-AzVMSourceImage -PublisherName $ImagePublisher -Offer $imageOffer -Skus $imageSKU -Version "latest" 3> $null | Set-AzVMOSDisk -Name "$vmName.vhd" -CreateOption fromImage  3> $null | Add-AzVMNetworkInterface -Id $NIC_1.Id  3> $null
$VM1 = New-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName  -Location $rg.Location  -VM $VMconfig1


$vmName= "dsVM2"
$VMconfig2 = New-AzVMConfig -VMName $vmName -VMSize $vmsize -AvailabilitySetId $avset.Id 3> $null | Set-AzVMOperatingSystem -Windows -ComputerName $vmName -Credential $cred -ProvisionVMAgent 3> $null | Set-AzVMSourceImage -PublisherName $ImagePublisher -Offer $imageOffer -Skus $imageSKU -Version "latest" 3> $null | Set-AzVMOSDisk -Name "$vmName.vhd" -CreateOption fromImage  3> $null | Add-AzVMNetworkInterface -Id $NIC_2.Id  3> $null
$VM2 = New-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rg.ResourceGroupName  -Location $rg.Location  -VM $VMconfig2

View IPv6 dual stack virtual network in Azure portal

You can view the IPv6 dual stack virtual network in Azure portal as follows:

  1. In the portal's search bar, enter dsVnet.
  2. When dsVnet appears in the search results, select it. This launches the Overview page of the dual stack virtual network named dsVnet. The dual stack virtual network shows the two NICs with both IPv4 and IPv6 configurations located in the dual stack subnet named dsSubnet.

IPv6 Dual Stack Virtual Network with Standard Internal Load Balancer

Note

The IPv6 for Azure virtual network is available in the Azure portal in read-only for this preview release.

Clean up resources

When no longer needed, you can use the Remove-AzResourceGroup command to remove the resource group, VM, and all related resources.

Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name dsStd_ILB_RG

Next steps

In this article, you created a Standard Load Balancer with a dual frontend IP configuration (IPv4 and IPv6). You also created a two virtual machines that included NICs with dual IP configurations (IPV4 + IPv6) that were added to the backend pool of the load balancer. To learn more about IPv6 support in Azure virtual networks, see What is IPv6 for Azure Virtual Network?