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In this lesson you’ll learn how to design, deploy, and operate Azure Load Balancers — a core building block for creating scalable, resilient, and highly available applications on Azure. By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
  • Choose between public and internal load balancers depending on whether you need internet-facing or VNet-only load distribution.
  • Route traffic through Network Virtual Appliances (NVAs) using Gateway Load Balancer for deep packet inspection, advanced firewalling, or third-party appliances.
  • Design load balancing across Availability Zones to tolerate zone-level failures and improve uptime.
  • Compare Azure Load Balancer SKUs (Standard vs Basic) and select the right SKU based on scale, feature set, and security requirements.
A slide titled "Learning Objectives" showing four numbered points. The items list goals about Azure load balancers: public vs internal, routing traffic via NVAs/Gateway Load Balancer, operation across availability zones, and comparing Standard vs Basic SKUs.
This module also provides a hands-on walkthrough in the Azure portal so you can configure a load balancer end-to-end. You will learn how to:
  • Associate backend pools with Virtual Machines (VMs) or Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) to enable horizontal scaling and simplified lifecycle operations.
  • Create load balancing rules that define how inbound connections are distributed to backend instances.
  • Implement session affinity (sticky sessions) when stateful application behavior requires client affinity.
  • Configure health probes so only healthy backend instances receive traffic, reducing downtime and failed requests.
  • Define outbound NAT rules so backend resources can initiate outbound internet connections when required.
A slide titled "Learning Objectives" showing four numbered points (05–08) down the right side. The points list Azure load balancer tasks: creating/configuring a load balancer, associating VMs or VM scale sets with backend pools, defining traffic distribution rules, and maintaining user session continuity.
This lesson assumes a basic familiarity with Azure networking concepts such as virtual networks (VNets), subnets, network interfaces (NICs), and basic resource provisioning in the Azure Portal. If you are new to these topics, review Azure networking fundamentals before continuing.
Below is a quick comparison to help you pick between the Standard and Basic Azure Load Balancer SKUs:
Feature / ConsiderationStandard SKUBasic SKU
Scale and throughputHigh — supports larger scale and more concurrent flowsLower scale, suitable for small workloads
Availability ZonesZone-redundant support and zone-level resiliencyNo zone redundancy
SLASLA-backed for production workloadsNo SLA
SecuritySecured by NSG integration and supports private IPs by defaultLimited features, less network isolation
HA Ports / SNAT / Outbound rulesAdvanced capabilitiesLimited
Use caseProduction, enterprise apps, high-scale, secure scenariosTest/dev or very small deployments
Choose the Standard SKU for production workloads that require zone resiliency, higher scale, and advanced features. Use Basic only for simple, non-critical test/dev scenarios.
Now that you know the objectives and what you’ll practice, we’ll proceed to core concepts and an end-to-end deployment in the Azure Portal — including backend pools, probes, rules, session affinity, and outbound NAT configuration. Links and references

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