Implement load balancing for deployment, including Azure Traffic Manager and the Web Apps feature of Azure App Service

Load balancing is a crucial aspect of deploying applications in a distributed environment. It ensures that incoming traffic is evenly distributed across multiple servers, thereby improving the performance, availability, and scalability of the application. Azure offers various tools and services to implement load balancing for deployment, including Azure Traffic Manager and the Web Apps feature of Azure App Service. In this article, we will explore these services and learn how to utilize them effectively.

Azure Traffic Manager

Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that allows you to distribute incoming traffic across multiple Azure endpoints. It provides you with the flexibility to implement various load-balancing strategies, including performance, priority, and geographic routing.

To implement load balancing using Azure Traffic Manager, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create Azure Traffic Manager profile
1. Navigate to the Azure portal and search for “Traffic Manager profiles.”
2. Click on “Add” to create a new Traffic Manager profile.
3. Specify a name for the profile, choose the routing method (performance, priority, or geographic), and configure the DNS TTL (Time to Live) value.
4. Select the subscription, resource group, and location for the profile.
5. Click on “Create” to create the Traffic Manager profile.

Step 2: Configure DNS settings
1. Once the profile is created, navigate to the profile’s overview page.
2. Copy the DNS name associated with the Traffic Manager profile.
3. Update the DNS settings of your domain name to include a CNAME record that points to the Traffic Manager DNS name.

Step 3: Add endpoints
1. In the Traffic Manager profile’s settings, click on “Endpoints.”
2. Click on “Add” to add a new endpoint.
3. Specify the endpoint type (Azure endpoint, external endpoint, or nested endpoint) and fill in the relevant details.
4. Repeat this step for each endpoint you want to add.

Once the Traffic Manager profile is configured, it will handle incoming traffic and distribute it across the added endpoints based on the selected routing method. This ensures that all endpoints receive a fair share of the incoming requests, thereby achieving load balancing.

Azure App Service

Azure App Service is another powerful service that provides a platform for hosting web applications, mobile app backends, and RESTful APIs. The Web Apps feature of Azure App Service offers built-in load balancing capabilities to distribute incoming traffic across multiple instances of your web application.

To enable load balancing for an Azure Web App, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create an Azure Web App
1. Navigate to the Azure portal and search for “Web App.”
2. Click on “Add” to create a new Web App.
3. Specify a unique name for your app, select the subscription, resource group, and operating system.
4. Configure the remaining settings as per your requirements and click on “Create” to create the Web App.

Step 2: Scale your Web App
1. Once the Web App is created, navigate to its settings and click on “Scale up (App Service Plan).”
2. Select the desired pricing tier and click on “Apply” to scale up your Web App.
3. Ensure that you scale your deployment to multiple instances to take advantage of the built-in load balancing capability.

Step 3: Enable Application Request Routing (ARR) affinity
1. In the Web App settings, navigate to “Configuration” and select “General settings.”
2. Enable the “ARR affinity” option to enable session affinity, which ensures that subsequent requests from a client are routed to the same instance that served the initial request.

Once the Web App is scaled up and ARR affinity is enabled, the load balancer associated with Azure App Service will distribute incoming traffic across the multiple instances of your Web App. This helps in achieving load balancing and ensures high availability and scalability for your application.

In conclusion, load balancing is essential for deploying applications in a distributed environment, and Azure provides powerful tools and services to implement load balancing effectively. Azure Traffic Manager and the Web Apps feature of Azure App Service offer flexible and built-in load balancing capabilities. By leveraging these services, you can ensure improved performance, availability, and scalability for your applications in the Microsoft DevOps Solutions environment.