Can i use Azure Load Balancer for below scenario? If yes what is the cost incured? or if not which load balacing solution suits and its cost?

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Can i use Azure Load Balancer for below scenario? If yes what is the cost incured? or if not which load balacing solution suits and its cost?

Jayanth Rajanna 46

Load balancer: A load balancer is a device that acts as a reverse proxy and distributes network or
application traffic across several servers.

Load balancers are used to increase capacity(concurrent users) and reliability of applications.

They improve the overall performance of application by decreasing the burden on servers associated with
managing and maintaining application and network session, as well as by performing application specific tasks

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Answer 1

GitaraniSharma-MSFT 50,021 Microsoft Employee Moderator

Hello @Jayanth Rajanna ,

Yes, you can use Azure Application gateway to distribute incoming application traffic across multiple backend pools, which include Azure VMs, virtual machine scale sets, Azure App Service, and on-premises/external servers.

Azure Application Gateway is a managed web traffic load balancer and HTTP(S) full reverse proxy that can do secure socket layer (SSL) encryption and decryption. Application Gateway also uses Web Application Firewall to inspect web traffic and detect attacks at the HTTP layer.

Application gateway supports SSL/TLS termination at the gateway, after which traffic typically flows unencrypted to the backend servers. This feature allows web servers to be unburdened from costly encryption and decryption overhead.

Application Gateway Standard_v2 supports autoscaling and can scale up or down based on changing traffic load patterns. Autoscaling also removes the requirement to choose a deployment size or instance count during provisioning.

For more information, please refer the below articles:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/overview
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/features

Kindly let us know if you need any further assistance on this issue from our end.

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Jayanth Rajanna 46 Reputation points

2020-08-19T16:07:27.837+00:00

Hi Gitarani,

Thanks for your explanation.

Could you please confirm. Can App Gateway distributes Network Traffic / Layer 4 traffic like Normal Azure Load balancer does.

I aware that it distributes web traffic which is nothing but Layer 7 / Application traffic to backend servers. But need confirmation on Network Traffic distribution (80,443)
GitaraniSharma-MSFT 50,021 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2020-08-20T01:49:41.05+00:00

@Jayanth Rajanna , Application Gateway is a layer 7 load balancer, which means it works only with web traffic (HTTP, HTTPS, WebSocket, and HTTP/2). Azure Load Balancer load-balances traffic at layer 4 (TCP or UDP).
Jayanth Rajanna 46 Reputation points

2020-08-20T04:15:44.14+00:00

@GitaraniSharma-MSFT , So to achieve below scenario, Can i use Azure Load Balancer or App Gateway or Both.

1.The load balancer should have the reverse proxy feature.
2.Distribute Network traffic or Application traffic across the backend servers
3.Increase the reliability of the Application
4.Improve the overall performance of application by decreasing the burden on servers associated with
managing and maintaining application and network session, as well as by performing application specific tasks
GitaraniSharma-MSFT 50,021 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2020-08-20T05:25:37.44+00:00

1) The load balancer should have the reverse proxy feature. - Application gateway
2) Distribute Network traffic or Application traffic across the backend servers - Azure load balancer (network traffic) & Application gateway (web traffic)
3) Increase the reliability of the Application - Both
4) Improve the overall performance of application by decreasing the burden on servers associated with managing and maintaining application and network session, as well as by performing application specific tasks - Please clarify what are you referring as "performing application specific tasks"?

You can provide a bit more clarity on what your setup will be (including the application that you are going to implement and what exact features you are looking for), to determine the better option.
Jayanth Rajanna 46 Reputation points

2020-08-20T06:33:13.777+00:00

I need to provide solution to the customer for their Load balancing requirement and they have mentioned their requirements as above points and hence i am looking for help, Which load balancing solution i can provide.

Application specific tasks might be configuring SSL,WAF or any application related events.

From your above explanation i understand as follows:
A Normal Load balancer cannot have reverse proxy and cannot distribute Application traffic and it just routes network traffic.

Also Application gateway can only distributes application traffic and not network traffic.

So can i suggest clients to implement both ALB and AGW to achieve their above said requirement?
GitaraniSharma-MSFT 50,021 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2020-08-20T07:16:20.367+00:00

@Jayanth Rajanna , without more information on the infrastructure, it would be difficult to point out one of the load balancing services. But as I mentioned earlier, Application gateway will provide reverse proxy and can distribute web traffic and has features such as SSL termination and WAF etc which you require. On the other hand, load balancer will distribute network traffic (TCP/UDP) and do not have options for SSL or WAF. If your network setup is comprised of a mix of both then yes, you can suggest both Azure load balancer and Application gateway.
Jayanth Rajanna 46 Reputation points

2020-08-20T09:30:17.32+00:00

ok thanks for your suggestion

Answer 2

GitaraniSharma-MSFT 50,021 Microsoft Employee Moderator

Hello @Jayanth Rajanna ,

Azure provides the following load balancing options : Azure Front Door, Traffic Manager, Application Gateway & Azure Load Balancer. You need to choose the load balancing service depending upon which type of application you are going to use and how would you like the traffic to be distributed.

You can find all types of load-balancing options available in Azure in the below article:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/guide/technology-choices/load-balancing-overview

You can select the load balancing option depending on your need such as Gloabl/Regional, HTTP(S) or Non-HTTP(S). Please make use of the decision tree for load balancing in Azure which will give you a fair idea on cost and SLA as well.

Kindly let us know if you need any further assistance on this issue from our end.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please don’t forget to "Accept the answer" wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.

Jayanth Rajanna 46 Reputation points

2020-08-19T15:39:08.98+00:00

Hello Gitarani,

Thanks for your response. In my scenario,
1.The load balancer should have the reverse proxy feature.
2.Distribute Network traffic or Application traffic across the backend servers
3.Increase the reliability of the Application
4.Improve the overall performance of application by decreasing the burden on servers associated with
managing and maintaining application and network session, as well as by performing application specific tasks

I am aware of that it depends on the type of application hosted. But Which load balancing solution would better fit for the above said points.

If i choose Normal Azure Load balancer, It distributes network traffic across servers. Will it perform reverse proxy feature? I guess not. Correct me if i am wrong in this point.

Can i choose App gateway for this scenario because i believe it supports application specific tasks.. Please suggest on this.

Also confirm if App Gateway can distribute network traffic also? Please confirm

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Can i use Azure Load Balancer for below scenario? If yes what is the cost incured? or if not which load balacing solution suits and its cost?

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