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Create an application gateway with HTTP to HTTPS redirection using the Azure CLI

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You can use the Azure CLI to create an application gateway with a certificate for TLS/SSL termination. A routing rule is used to redirect HTTP traffic to the HTTPS port in your application gateway. In this example, you also create a Virtual Machine Scale Set for the backend pool of the application gateway that contains two virtual machine instances.

In this article, you learn how to:

  • Create a self-signed certificate
  • Set up a network
  • Create an application gateway with the certificate
  • Add a listener and redirection rule
  • Create a Virtual Machine Scale Set with the default backend pool

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

  • This tutorial requires version 2.0.4 or later of the Azure CLI. If using Azure Cloud Shell, the latest version is already installed.

Create a self-signed certificate

For production use, you should import a valid certificate signed by a trusted provider. For this tutorial, you create a self-signed certificate and pfx file using the openssl command.

openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout privateKey.key -out appgwcert.crt

Enter values that make sense for your certificate. You can accept the default values.

openssl pkcs12 -export -out appgwcert.pfx -inkey privateKey.key -in appgwcert.crt

Enter the password for the certificate. In this example, Azure123456! is being used.

Create a resource group

A resource group is a logical container into which Azure resources are deployed and managed. Create a resource group using az group create.

The following example creates a resource group named myResourceGroupAG in the eastus location.

az group create --name myResourceGroupAG --location eastus

Create network resources

Create the virtual network named myVNet and the subnet named myAGSubnet using az network vnet create. You can then add the subnet named myBackendSubnet needed by the backend servers using az network vnet subnet create. Create the public IP address named myAGPublicIPAddress using az network public-ip create.

az network vnet create \
  --name myVNet \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --location eastus \
  --address-prefix 10.0.0.0/16 \
  --subnet-name myAGSubnet \
  --subnet-prefix 10.0.1.0/24
az network vnet subnet create \
  --name myBackendSubnet \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --vnet-name myVNet \
  --address-prefix 10.0.2.0/24
az network public-ip create \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --name myAGPublicIPAddress

Create the application gateway

You can use az network application-gateway create to create the application gateway named myAppGateway. When you create an application gateway using the Azure CLI, you specify configuration information, such as capacity, sku, and HTTP settings.

The application gateway is assigned to myAGSubnet and myAGPublicIPAddress that you previously created. In this example, you associate the certificate that you created and its password when you create the application gateway.

az network application-gateway create \
  --name myAppGateway \
  --location eastus \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --vnet-name myVNet \
  --subnet myAGsubnet \
  --capacity 2 \
  --sku Standard_Medium \
  --http-settings-cookie-based-affinity Disabled \
  --frontend-port 443 \
  --http-settings-port 80 \
  --http-settings-protocol Http \
  --public-ip-address myAGPublicIPAddress \
  --cert-file appgwcert.pfx \
  --cert-password "Azure123456!"

It may take several minutes for the application gateway to be created. After the application gateway is created, you can see these new features of it:

  • appGatewayBackendPool - An application gateway must have at least one backend address pool.
  • appGatewayBackendHttpSettings - Specifies that port 80 and an HTTP protocol is used for communication.
  • appGatewayHttpListener - The default listener associated with appGatewayBackendPool.
  • appGatewayFrontendIP - Assigns myAGPublicIPAddress to appGatewayHttpListener.
  • rule1 - The default routing rule that is associated with appGatewayHttpListener.

Add a listener and redirection rule

Add the HTTP port

You can use az network application-gateway frontend-port create to add the HTTP port to the application gateway.

az network application-gateway frontend-port create \
  --port 80 \
  --gateway-name myAppGateway \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --name httpPort

Add the HTTP listener

You can use az network application-gateway http-listener create to add the listener named myListener to the application gateway.

az network application-gateway http-listener create \
  --name myListener \
  --frontend-ip appGatewayFrontendIP \
  --frontend-port httpPort \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --gateway-name myAppGateway

Add the redirection configuration

Add the HTTP to HTTPS redirection configuration to the application gateway using az network application-gateway redirect-config create.

az network application-gateway redirect-config create \
  --name httpToHttps \
  --gateway-name myAppGateway \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --type Permanent \
  --target-listener appGatewayHttpListener \
  --include-path true \
  --include-query-string true

Add the routing rule

Add the routing rule named rule2 with the redirection configuration to the application gateway using az network application-gateway rule create.

az network application-gateway rule create \
  --gateway-name myAppGateway \
  --name rule2 \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --http-listener myListener \
  --rule-type Basic \
  --redirect-config httpToHttps

Create a Virtual Machine Scale Set

In this example, you create a Virtual Machine Scale Set named myvmss that provides servers for the backend pool in the application gateway. The virtual machines in the scale set are associated with myBackendSubnet and appGatewayBackendPool. To create the scale set, you can use az vmss create.

az vmss create \
  --name myvmss \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --admin-password Azure123456! \
  --instance-count 2 \
  --vnet-name myVNet \
  --subnet myBackendSubnet \
  --vm-sku Standard_DS2 \
  --upgrade-policy-mode Automatic \
  --app-gateway myAppGateway \
  --backend-pool-name appGatewayBackendPool

Install NGINX

az vmss extension set \
  --publisher Microsoft.Azure.Extensions \
  --version 2.0 \
  --name CustomScript \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --vmss-name myvmss \
  --settings '{ "fileUris": ["https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-docs-powershell-samples/master/application-gateway/iis/install_nginx.sh"],
  "commandToExecute": "./install_nginx.sh" }'

Test the application gateway

To get the public IP address of the application gateway, you can use az network public-ip show. Copy the public IP address, and then paste it into the address bar of your browser.

az network public-ip show \
  --resource-group myResourceGroupAG \
  --name myAGPublicIPAddress \
  --query [ipAddress] \
  --output tsv

Secure warning

To accept the security warning if you used a self-signed certificate, select Details and then Go on to the webpage. Your secured NGINX site is then displayed as in the following example:

Test base URL in application gateway

Next steps