I have question on traffic manager geographic routing with nested weighted profile

Question

Hello all, I have one main tm profile with geographic in which I have 3 endpoints in for West us with geography location northamerica and us with west states and another with northamerica us with east states and third with uk. What is happening when a east us user is doing any query it always shows West not the east vpn. Again the child profile with weightage for east and west endpoints but I feel the main tm profile itself is not configured properly. Do we need to use performance with weight. We want users from should show that they get query from same region dns.

Answer 1

Hello RajeshKumar G

**
**We want to share our findings about the Azure Traffic Manager (TM) behavior you reported, where users in East US are being routed to the West US endpoint instead of East US.

Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based global traffic routing service, so routing is determined by the source IP of the DNS recursive resolver making the query, not the user’s device IP.

Users often use centralized, corporate, VPN-based, or public DNS resolvers, which may be geolocated elsewhere (like West US). Therefore, even if someone is in East US, Traffic Manager may return the West US endpoint based on the resolver’s location.

Your current setup uses Geographic routing at the parent profile and Weighted routing in child profiles for East and West endpoints. This follows Microsoft’s recommended architecture.

Note that a Traffic Manager profile can only use one routing method at a time; combining Geographic and Performance routing requires nested profiles.

To route users to endpoints within their region, keep the parent profile on Geographic routing and assign each region East US, West US, UK its own child profile. Each child should only have endpoints from that region and can use Weighted routing as needed.

Make sure geographic mappings at the parent level are set so East US states map only to the East US child profile, and West US states only to the West US child profile. Also, DNS caching and TTL settings can cause resolved answers to persist after changes.

Because Traffic Manager is DNS-based, it’s not possible to guarantee 100% region-accurate routing, especially with centralized or remote DNS resolvers. Geographic or Performance routing works well for most users, but regional mismatches may occasionally occur and are considered normal.

Check the below documents for more understanding:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/traffic-manager/traffic-manager-routing-methods

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/traffic-manager/traffic-manager-configure-geographic-routing-method

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/traffic-manager/traffic-manager-faqs

Please feel free to contact us if you require any further information.

---

I hope the above answer helps you! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Please don't forget to "upvote" where the information provided will help you, this can be beneficial to other members of the community.

Answer 2

Traffic Manager geographic routing always chooses the endpoint based on the geographic mapping in the parent profile, not on where the child endpoints actually are or which region they “should” serve.

Key points for this scenario:

1. How geographic + nested weighted works
   • The parent profile is set to Geographic.
   • For each DNS query, Traffic Manager:
     1. Looks at the source IP of the DNS resolver (not the user’s VM or browser) to infer the geographic region.
     2. Finds the first matching geographic mapping on an endpoint in the parent profile (state → country/region → regional grouping → World).
     3. Returns that endpoint. If that endpoint is a nested profile, the child profile’s routing method (Weighted in this case) is applied only inside that child profile.
   • A geographic region can be mapped to only one endpoint in a profile using Geographic routing. There is no automatic failover to another endpoint for that region.
2. Why East US users may be going to West
   • If the North America / US / East states mapping on the parent profile is not correctly assigned, or if the North America / US / West states mapping is broader (for example mapped at a higher level like “United States” or “North America”), the lookup may match the West mapping first.
   • Traffic Manager uses an internal IP-to-region map based on the DNS resolver’s IP. If the user’s DNS resolver is physically or logically located in a “West” state/region (or in a region mapped to the West endpoint), the query will be routed to the West endpoint even if the user is in East US.
3. What to check in the parent geographic profile
   • Ensure that:
     • The East US states are mapped only to the nested East profile (or to the nested profile that should serve East), and
     • The West US states are mapped only to the nested West profile.
   • Verify that no endpoint in the parent profile has a broader region (for example, “United States” or “North America”) that would “catch” both East and West queries before the more specific state mappings.
   • Confirm that each geographic region (state, country, regional grouping, World) is assigned to exactly one endpoint in the parent profile.
4. Whether to use Performance instead of Geographic
   • Geographic routing is for enforcing a geo-fence: “users from region X must go to endpoint Y,” regardless of latency.
   • Performance routing is for sending users to the lowest-latency endpoint, which often but not always corresponds to geographic proximity.
   • If the requirement is: “Users from East US must always be served by the East endpoint,” then Geographic is correct, but the geo-mapping must be fixed.
   • If the requirement is: “Users should go to whichever endpoint is fastest, typically in their region,” then a Performance profile (possibly nested under a Geographic parent for higher-level geo separation) is more appropriate.
5. Recommended pattern
   • Keep the parent profile as Geographic with endpoints that are nested profiles (as already done), each nested profile containing multiple endpoints (for example, multiple East-region endpoints with Weighted or Performance routing inside).
   • Carefully configure Geo-mapping on the parent profile so that:
     • East US states → East nested profile
     • West US states → West nested profile
     • UK → UK nested profile
   • Avoid assigning overlapping or broader regions (like “North America” or “United States”) to the West endpoint if East should be separate.

This configuration ensures that:

• Geographic routing in the parent profile sends queries from each state/region to the correct nested profile.
• The nested Weighted profile then distributes traffic only among the endpoints for that region.

---

References:

• Traffic Manager routing methods
• Traffic Manager Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Traffic Manager endpoint monitoring
• Tutorial: Configure the geographic traffic routing method using Traffic Manager