Azure Gateway Load Balancer Deployment (Portal-Based)

🚦 Azure Gateway Load Balancer Lab — Multi-Tier Network Stack

This lab demonstrates the creation and configuration of a Gateway Load Balancer using the Azure portal. It walks through deploying a segmented virtual network, configuring a public and internal load balancer, creating custom network security rules, and integrating an NVA (Network Virtual Appliance) into the backend pool.

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🎯 Objectives

• Deploy Azure Virtual Network (whizVNet) with subnetting for backend tiers
• Enable Azure Bastion for secure access via browser
• Provision Network Security Group (whizNSG) with custom inbound/outbound rules
• Create:
  • Standard Load Balancer (whizLoadBalancer)
  • Gateway Load Balancer (whizLoadBalancer-gw)
• Configure frontend IPs, backend pools, and TCP health probes
• Deploy a Windows Server NVA (whizNVA) and associate it with the gateway backend pool
• Validate the environment and resource protection workflows

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🧰 Core Components

Resource Type	Name	Notes
VNet	whizVNet	IP: 10.1.0.0, Subnet: myBackendSubnet
Azure Bastion	myBastionIP	Secure browser-based RDP access
NSG	whizNSG	Custom rules for inbound/outbound traffic
Load Balancer	whizLoadBalancer	Public-facing
Gateway LB	whizLoadBalancer-gw	Internal, ties to backend pool
NVA VM	whizNVA	Windows Server 2019, used in backend pool
Health Probe	whizHealthProbe	TCP-based, default port 80

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🔐 Security Highlights

• NSG rules configured:
  • Allow all inbound traffic (whizNSGRule-AllowAll-All)
  • Allow outbound TCP traffic (whizNSGRule-AllowAll-TCP-Out)
• Azure Bastion used for secure remote access
• Boot diagnostics disabled to minimize exposure

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🔁 Load Balancer Configuration

• Frontend IPs for public access and gateway integration
• Backend Pools configured for internal/external port mapping:
  • Internal port: 10800, ID: 800
  • External port: 10801, ID: 801
• Load Balancing Rule:
  • Frontend IP: whizFrontEnd
  • Backend Pool: whizBackendPool
  • Protocol: TCP, Session Persistence: None

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🧪 Validation Steps

• VM (whizNVA) added to the Gateway LB backend pool
• Proper association verified via portal settings
• Resource group cleanup initiated but halted due to lab constraints

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🧠 Key Concepts Demonstrated

• Gateway Load Balancer architecture in Azure
• NSG configuration for traffic control
• Subnet planning and segmentation
• Public vs internal Load Balancer setup
• Health probe and session configuration
• VM attachment and backend pool integration

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🔖 Recommended Tags

azure-networking gateway-load-balancer nsg virtual-network bastion windows-nva tcp-probe frontend-ip backend-pool cloud-lab

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🙌 Author

Joshua Phillis
Cloud engineer focused on secure network architectures, Azure governance practices, and multi-cloud deployment labs.