Quickstart: Create a public load balancer to load balance VMs using Terraform

Article
02/08/2024

This quickstart shows you how to deploy a standard load balancer to load balance virtual machines using Terraform.

Terraform enables the definition, preview, and deployment of cloud infrastructure. Using Terraform, you create configuration files using HCL syntax. The HCL syntax allows you to specify the cloud provider - such as Azure - and the elements that make up your cloud infrastructure. After you create your configuration files, you create an execution plan that allows you to preview your infrastructure changes before they're deployed. Once you verify the changes, you apply the execution plan to deploy the infrastructure.

Create an Azure resource group using azurerm_resource_group
Create an Azure Virtual Network using azurerm_virtual_network
Create an Azure subnet using azurerm_subnet
Create an Azure public IP using azurerm_public_ip
Create an Azure Load Balancer using azurerm_lb
Create an Azure network interface using azurerm_network_interface
Create an Azure network interface load balancer backend address pool association using azurerm_network_interface_backend_address_pool_association
Create an Azure Linux Virtual Machine using azurerm_linux_virtual_machine
Create an Azure Virtual Machine Extension using azurerm_virtual_machine_extension

Prerequisites

Install and configure Terraform

Implement the Terraform code

Note

See more articles and sample code showing how to use Terraform to manage Azure resources

Create a directory in which to test the sample Terraform code and make it the current directory.

Create a file named providers.tf and insert the following code:

terraform {
   required_version = ">=0.12"

   required_providers {
     azapi = {
       source  = "azure/azapi"
       version = "~>1.5"
     }
     azurerm = {
       source  = "hashicorp/azurerm"
       version = "~>2.0"
     }
     random = {
       source  = "hashicorp/random"
       version = "~>3.0"
     }
  }
}

provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
}

Create a file named main.tf and insert the following code:

resource "random_string" "my_resource_group" {
  length  = 8
  upper   = false
 special = false
}

# Create Resource Group
resource "azurerm_resource_group" "my_resource_group" {
 name     = "test-group-${random_string.my_resource_group.result}"
 location = var.resource_group_location
}

# Create Virtual Network
resource "azurerm_virtual_network" "my_virtual_network" {
  name                = var.virtual_network_name
  address_space       = ["10.0.0.0/16"]
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name
}

# Create a subnet in the Virtual Network
resource "azurerm_subnet" "my_subnet" {
  name                 = var.subnet_name
  resource_group_name  = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name
  virtual_network_name = azurerm_virtual_network.my_virtual_network.name
  address_prefixes     = ["10.0.1.0/24"]
}

# Create Network Security Group and rules
resource "azurerm_network_security_group" "my_nsg" {
  name                = var.network_security_group_name
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name

  security_rule {
    name                       = "web"
    priority                   = 1008
    direction                  = "Inbound"
    access                     = "Allow"
    protocol                   = "Tcp"
    source_port_range          = "*"
    destination_port_range     = "80"
    source_address_prefix      = "*"
    destination_address_prefix = "10.0.1.0/24"
  }
}

# Associate the Network Security Group to the subnet
resource "azurerm_subnet_network_security_group_association" "my_nsg_association" {
  subnet_id                 = azurerm_subnet.my_subnet.id
  network_security_group_id = azurerm_network_security_group.my_nsg.id
}

# Create Public IP
resource "azurerm_public_ip" "my_public_ip" {
  name                = var.public_ip_name
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name
  allocation_method   = "Static"
  sku                 = "Standard"
}

# Create Network Interface
resource "azurerm_network_interface" "my_nic" {
  count               = 2
  name                = "${var.network_interface_name}${count.index}"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name

  ip_configuration {
    name                          = "ipconfig${count.index}"
    subnet_id                     = azurerm_subnet.my_subnet.id
    private_ip_address_allocation = "Dynamic"
    primary = true
  }
}

# Associate Network Interface to the Backend Pool of the Load Balancer
resource "azurerm_network_interface_backend_address_pool_association" "my_nic_lb_pool" {
  count                   = 2
  network_interface_id    = azurerm_network_interface.my_nic[count.index].id
  ip_configuration_name   = "ipconfig${count.index}"
  backend_address_pool_id = azurerm_lb_backend_address_pool.my_lb_pool.id
}

# Create Virtual Machine
resource "azurerm_linux_virtual_machine" "my_vm" {
  count                 = 2
  name                  = "${var.virtual_machine_name}${count.index}"
  location              = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.location
  resource_group_name   = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name
  network_interface_ids = [azurerm_network_interface.my_nic[count.index].id]
  size                  = var.virtual_machine_size

  os_disk {
    name                 = "${var.disk_name}${count.index}"
    caching              = "ReadWrite"
    storage_account_type = var.redundancy_type
  }

  source_image_reference {
    publisher = "Canonical"
    offer     = "0001-com-ubuntu-server-jammy"
    sku       = "22_04-lts-gen2"
    version   = "latest"
  }

  admin_username                  = var.username
  admin_password                  = var.password
  disable_password_authentication = false

}

# Enable virtual machine extension and install Nginx
resource "azurerm_virtual_machine_extension" "my_vm_extension" {
  count                = 2
  name                 = "Nginx"
  virtual_machine_id   = azurerm_linux_virtual_machine.my_vm[count.index].id
  publisher            = "Microsoft.Azure.Extensions"
  type                 = "CustomScript"
  type_handler_version = "2.0"

  settings = <<SETTINGS
 {
  "commandToExecute": "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nginx -y && echo \"Hello World from $(hostname)\" > /var/www/html/index.html && sudo systemctl restart nginx"
 }
SETTINGS

}

# Create Public Load Balancer
resource "azurerm_lb" "my_lb" {
  name                = var.load_balancer_name
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name
  sku                 = "Standard"

  frontend_ip_configuration {
    name                 = var.public_ip_name
    public_ip_address_id = azurerm_public_ip.my_public_ip.id
  }
}

resource "azurerm_lb_backend_address_pool" "my_lb_pool" {
  loadbalancer_id      = azurerm_lb.my_lb.id
  name                 = "test-pool"
}

resource "azurerm_lb_probe" "my_lb_probe" {
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name
  loadbalancer_id     = azurerm_lb.my_lb.id
  name                = "test-probe"
  port                = 80
}

resource "azurerm_lb_rule" "my_lb_rule" {
  resource_group_name            = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name
  loadbalancer_id                = azurerm_lb.my_lb.id
  name                           = "test-rule"
  protocol                       = "Tcp"
  frontend_port                  = 80
  backend_port                   = 80
  disable_outbound_snat          = true
  frontend_ip_configuration_name = var.public_ip_name
  probe_id                       = azurerm_lb_probe.my_lb_probe.id
  backend_address_pool_ids       = [azurerm_lb_backend_address_pool.my_lb_pool.id]
}

resource "azurerm_lb_outbound_rule" "my_lboutbound_rule" {
  resource_group_name     = azurerm_resource_group.my_resource_group.name
  name                    = "test-outbound"
  loadbalancer_id         = azurerm_lb.my_lb.id
  protocol                = "Tcp"
  backend_address_pool_id = azurerm_lb_backend_address_pool.my_lb_pool.id

  frontend_ip_configuration {
    name = var.public_ip_name
  }
}

Create a file named variables.tf and insert the following code:

variable "resource_group_location" {
  type        = string
  default     = "eastus"
  description = "Location of the resource group."
}

variable "username" {
  type        = string
  default     = "microsoft"
  description = "The username for the local account that will be created on the new VM."
}

variable "password" {
  type        = string
  default     = "Microsoft@123"
  description = "The passoword for the local account that will be created on the new VM."
}

variable "virtual_network_name" {
  type        = string
  default     = "test-vnet"
  description = "Name of the Virtual Network."
}

variable "subnet_name" {
  type        = string
  default     = "test-subnet"
  description = "Name of the subnet."
}

variable public_ip_name {
  type        = string
  default     = "test-public-ip"
  description = "Name of the Public IP."
}

variable network_security_group_name {
  type        = string
  default     = "test-nsg"
  description = "Name of the Network Security Group."
}

variable "network_interface_name" {
  type        = string
  default     = "test-nic"
  description = "Name of the Network Interface."  
}

variable "virtual_machine_name" {
  type        = string
  default     = "test-vm"
  description = "Name of the Virtual Machine."
}

variable "virtual_machine_size" {
  type        = string
  default     = "Standard_B2s"
  description = "Size or SKU of the Virtual Machine."
}

variable "disk_name" {
  type        = string
  default     = "test-disk"
  description = "Name of the OS disk of the Virtual Machine."
}

variable "redundancy_type" {
  type        = string
  default     = "Standard_LRS"
  description = "Storage redundancy type of the OS disk."
}

variable "load_balancer_name" {
  type        = string
  default     = "test-lb"
  description = "Name of the Load Balancer."
}

Create a file named outputs.tf and insert the following code:

output "public_ip_address" {
  value = "http://${azurerm_public_ip.my_public_ip.ip_address}"
}

Initialize Terraform

Run terraform init to initialize the Terraform deployment. This command downloads the Azure provider required to manage your Azure resources.

terraform init -upgrade

Key points:

The -upgrade parameter upgrades the necessary provider plugins to the newest version that complies with the configuration's version constraints.

Create a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform plan to create an execution plan.

terraform plan -out main.tfplan

Key points:

The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

Apply a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan to your cloud infrastructure.

terraform apply main.tfplan

Key points:

The example terraform apply command assumes you previously ran terraform plan -out main.tfplan.
If you specified a different filename for the -out parameter, use that same filename in the call to terraform apply.
If you didn't use the -out parameter, call terraform apply without any parameters.

Verify the results

When you apply the execution plan, Terraform displays the frontend public IP address. If you've cleared the screen, you can retrieve that value with the following Terraform command:
```
echo $(terraform output -raw public_ip_address)
```
Paste the public IP address into the address bar of your web browser. The custom VM page of the Nginx web server is displayed in the browser.

Clean up resources

When you no longer need the resources created via Terraform, do the following steps:

Run terraform plan and specify the destroy flag.
```
terraform plan -destroy -out main.destroy.tfplan
```
Key points:
- The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
- The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.
Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan.
```
terraform apply main.destroy.tfplan
```

Troubleshoot Terraform on Azure

Troubleshoot common problems when using Terraform on Azure

Next steps

In this quickstart, you:

Created an Azure Load Balancer
Attached 2 VMs to the load balancer
Tested the load balancer

To learn more about Azure Load Balancer, continue to:

What is Azure Load Balancer?

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Quickstart: Create a public load balancer to load balance VMs using Terraform

Prerequisites

Implement the Terraform code

Initialize Terraform

Create a Terraform execution plan

Apply a Terraform execution plan

Verify the results

Clean up resources

Troubleshoot Terraform on Azure

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources