Test reachability of Azure Public Load Balancer frontends with ping and traceroute

Standard Public Azure Load Balancer frontend IPv4 and IPv6 addresses support testing reachability using ping and traceroute. Testing reachability of a load balancer frontend is useful for troubleshooting inbound connectivity issues to Azure resources. In this article, you learn how to use ping and traceroute for testing a frontend of an existing Standard public load balancer. It can be completed from an Azure Virtual Machine or from a device outside of Azure.

Prerequisites

• An Azure account with an active subscription. Create an account for free and access to the Azure portal.

• A standard public load balancer with an IPv4 and IPv6 frontend in your subscription. For more information on creating an Azure Load Balancer, see Quickstart: Create a public load balancer to load balance VMs using the Azure portal.

• An Azure Virtual Machine with a public IP address assigned to its network interface. For more information on creating a virtual machine with a public IP, see Quickstart: Create a Windows virtual machine in the Azure portal.

Note

Testing inbound connectivity to Azure Load Balancer frontends is only supported for public load balancers. Testing inbound connectivity to internal load balancer frontends is not supported.

Testing from a device outside of Azure

Windows

This section describes testing reachability of a standard load balancer frontend from a Windows device outside of Azure.

Linux

This section describes testing reachability of a standard load balancer frontend from a Linux device outside of Azure.

Test the load balancer's frontend

Choose either ping or traceroute to test reachability of a standard load balancer frontend from a device outside of Azure.

Ping

Follow these steps to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend using ping from a Windows device outside of Azure:

1. From your Windows device, open the Search taskbar and enter cmd. Select Command Prompt.
2. In the command prompt, type the following command:

    ping <Input your load balancer public IP address>

3. Review ping's output.

Ping

Follow these steps to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend using ping from a Linux device outside of Azure:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type the following command:

    ping <Input your load balancer public IP address>

3. Review ping's output.

Traceroute

Follow these steps to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend using tracert from a Windows device outside of Azure:

1. From your Windows device, open the Search taskbar and enter cmd. Select Command Prompt.
2. In the command prompt, type the following command:

    tracert <Input your load balancer public IP address>

3. Review tracert's output.

Traceroute

Follow these steps to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend using traceroute from a Linux device outside of Azure:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type the following command:

    traceroute -I <Input your load balancer public IP address>

3. Review traceroute's output.

Testing from an Azure Virtual Machine

This section describes how to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend from an Azure Virtual Machine. First, you create an inbound Network Security Group (NSG) rule on the virtual machine to allow ICMP traffic. Then, you test reachability of the frontend of the load balancer from the virtual machine with ping or traceroute.

Configure inbound NSG rule

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. In the Search bar at the top of the portal, enter Virtual machines and select Virtual machines.

3. In Virtual machines, select your virtual machine from the list.

4. In the virtual machine’s menu, select Networking and then select Add inbound port rule.

   

5. In Add inbound security rule, enter or select the following information:

   Setting	Value
   Source	Enter Any
   Source port ranges	Enter *
   Destination	Enter Any
   Service	Ender Custom
   Destination port ranges	Enter *
   Protocol	Select ICMP
   Action	Select Allow
   Priority	Enter 100 or a priority of your choosing.
   Name	Enter AllowICMP or a name of your choosing
   Description	Leave as Blank or enter a description

   

6. Select Add.

Connect to the virtual machine

Windows

This section describes testing reachability of a standard load balancer frontend from a Windows Virtual Machine on Azure.

1. Return to Overview in the virtual machine’s menu and select Connect.
2. Sign in to your virtual machine using RDP, SSH, or Bastion.

Linux

This section describes testing reachability of a standard load balancer frontend from a Linux Virtual Machine on Azure.

1. Return to Overview in the virtual machine’s menu and select Connect.
2. Sign in to your virtual machine using SSH or Bastion.

Test the load balancer's frontend

Choose either ping or traceroute to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend from an Azure Virtual Machine.

Ping

Follow these steps to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend using ping from a Windows virtual machine:

1. From your Windows device, open the Search taskbar and enter cmd. Select Command Prompt.
2. In the command prompt, type the following command:

    ping <Input your load balancer public IP address>

3. Review ping's output.

Ping

Follow these steps to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend using ping from a Linux virtual machine:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type the following command:

    ping <Input your load balancer public IP address>

3. Review ping's output.

Traceroute

Follow these steps to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend using tracert from a Windows virtual machine:

1. From your Windows device, open the Search taskbar and enter cmd. Select Command Prompt.
2. In the command prompt, type the following command:

    tracert <Input your load balancer public IP address>

3. Review tracert's output.

Traceroute

Follow these steps to test reachability of a standard public load balancer frontend using traceroute from a Linux virtual machine:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type the following command:

    traceroute -I <Input your load balancer public IP address>

3. Review traceroute's output.

Expected replies with ping

Based on the current health probe state of your backend instances, you receive different replies when testing the Load Balancer’s frontend with ping. Review the following scenarios for the expected reply:

Scenario	Expected reply
All backend instances are probed DOWN	Destination host unreachable
All backend instances turned OFF	Unresponsive: Request timed out
At least 1 backend instance is probed UP	Successful echo replies
No backend instances behind Load Balancer/No load balancing rules associated	Unresponsive: Request timed out

Usage considerations

• ICMP pings can't be disabled and are allowed by default on Standard Public Load Balancers.
• ICMP pings with packet sizes larger than 64 bytes will be dropped, leading to timeouts.
• Outbound ICMP pings are not supported on a Load Balancer.

Note

ICMP ping requests are not sent to the backend instances; they are handled by the Load Balancer.

Next steps

• To troubleshoot load balancer issues, see Troubleshoot Azure Load Balancer.
• Learn how to Manage rules for Azure Load Balancer using the Azure portal.