Azure Load Balancer Skill
This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Load Balancer. Covers troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. It combines local quick-reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities.
How to Use This Skill
IMPORTANT for Agent: Use the Category Index below to locate relevant sections. For categories with line ranges (e.g., L35-L120), use read_file with the specified lines. For categories with file links (e.g., [security.md](security.md)), use read_file on the linked reference file
IMPORTANT for Agent: If metadata.generated_at is more than 3 months old, suggest the user pull the latest version from the repository. If mcp_microsoftdocs tools are not available, suggest the user install it: Installation Guide
This skill requires network access to fetch documentation content:
- Preferred: Use
mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch with query string from=learn-agent-skill. Returns Markdown. - Fallback: Use
fetch_webpage with query string from=learn-agent-skill&accept=text/markdown. Returns Markdown.
Category Index
| Category | Lines | Description |
|---|
| Troubleshooting | L37-L44 | Diagnosing and fixing Azure Load Balancer issues: deployment errors, health events/logs, probes, connectivity/backend traffic, SNAT/timeouts, IMDS errors, and resource health/availability. |
| Best Practices | L45-L52 | Guidance on deploying Azure Load Balancer with VM scale sets, configuring inbound NAT, and building custom HTTP/HTTPS health probes (Python) using recommended best practices. |
| Decision Making | L53-L60 | Guidance on choosing the right Load Balancer SKU, upgrading Basic to Standard, migrating from AWS NLB, and moving from inbound NAT rules v1 to v2. |
| Architecture & Design Patterns | L61-L66 | Design patterns for traffic distribution and session affinity, plus guidance for configuring outbound internet connectivity and SNAT behavior with Azure Load Balancer. |
| Limits & Quotas | L67-L73 | Load Balancer connection limits, SNAT/port behaviors, TCP idle timeout configuration, and how/when TCP resets occur for troubleshooting connectivity issues. |
| Security | L74-L79 | Securing Azure Load Balancer with NSGs and other controls, and enabling/configuring Azure DDoS Protection to defend against volumetric and protocol attacks. |
| Configuration | L80-L100 | Configuring Azure Load Balancer behavior: backends/frontends (incl. cross-subscription, IP-based, outbound-only), rules, health probes, traffic distribution, monitoring, and SNAT outbound rules. |
| Integrations & Coding Patterns | L101-L108 | Using IMDS, Azure Monitor CLI, and REST APIs to query load balancer/VM IPs, retrieve metadata, and collect/load metrics for integration and automation. |
| Deployment | L109-L113 | Guides for deploying Load Balancers: replicating configurations across regions and automating upgrades from Basic to Standard using PowerShell. |
Troubleshooting
| Topic | URL |
|---|
| Interpret Azure Load Balancer health event logs | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-health-event-logs |
| Monitor and alert on LoadBalancerHealthEvent logs | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-monitor-alert-health-event-logs |
| Use metrics, alerts, and health to diagnose Azure Load Balancer | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-standard-diagnostics |
| Test Azure Public Load Balancer frontend reachability | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-test-frontend-reachability |
Best Practices
| Topic | URL |
|---|
| Configure inbound NAT rules for VM scale sets | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/configure-inbound-nat-rules-vm-scale-set |
| Implement custom HTTP/HTTPS health probes with Python | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/create-custom-http-health-probe-howto |
| Apply Azure Load Balancer deployment best practices | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-best-practices |
| Use Azure Standard Load Balancer with virtual machine scale sets | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-standard-virtual-machine-scale-sets |
Decision Making
| Topic | URL |
|---|
| Plan and execute upgrade from Basic to Standard Load Balancer | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-basic-upgrade-guidance |
| Decide and migrate from inbound NAT rules v1 to v2 | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-nat-pool-migration |
| Migrate AWS Network Load Balancer workloads to Azure Load Balancer | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/network-load-balancing-aws-to-azure-how-to |
| Choose the right Azure Load Balancer SKU | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/skus |
Architecture & Design Patterns
| Topic | URL |
|---|
| Choose Azure Load Balancer distribution modes | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/distribution-mode-concepts |
| Design outbound internet connectivity with Azure Load Balancer SNAT | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-outbound-connections |
Limits & Quotas
| Topic | URL |
|---|
| Azure Load Balancer FAQs with limits and behaviors | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-faqs |
| Configure Azure Load Balancer TCP idle timeout and reset | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-tcp-idle-timeout |
| Understand Azure Load Balancer TCP reset behavior | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-tcp-reset |
Security
| Topic | URL |
|---|
| Apply security controls to Azure Load Balancer | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/secure-load-balancer |
| Protect Azure Load Balancer with Azure DDoS Protection | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/tutorial-protect-load-balancer-ddos |
Configuration
| Topic | URL |
|---|
| Configure Azure Load Balancer backend pools by IP | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/backend-pool-management |
| Configure cross-subscription backends for Azure Load Balancer | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/cross-subscription-how-to-attach-backend |
| Attach cross-subscription frontend IPs to Azure Load Balancer | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/cross-subscription-how-to-attach-frontend |
| Create global load balancer with cross-subscription backends | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/cross-subscription-how-to-global-backend |
| Configure cross-subscription internal Azure load balancer | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/cross-subscription-how-to-internal-load-balancer |
| Configure outbound-only Azure Load Balancer with Bastion | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/egress-only |
| Configure Azure Load Balancer health probe settings | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-custom-probe-overview |
| Configure Azure Load Balancer traffic distribution mode | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-distribution-mode |
| Configure DHCPv6 on Linux VMs for Azure IPv6 | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-ipv6-for-linux |
| Understand Azure Load Balancer portal configuration options | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/manage |
| Manage Azure Load Balancer backend admin state | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/manage-admin-state-how-to |
| Configure and manage Azure Load Balancer inbound NAT rules | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/manage-inbound-nat-rules |
| Configure Azure Load Balancer health probes | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/manage-probes-how-to |
| Configure Azure Load Balancer rule types and properties | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/manage-rules-how-to |
| Configure monitoring for Azure Load Balancer with Azure Monitor | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/monitor-load-balancer |
| Reference monitoring metrics and logs for Azure Load Balancer | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/monitor-load-balancer-reference |
| Configure outbound rules for Azure Load Balancer SNAT | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/outbound-rules |
Integrations & Coding Patterns
| Topic | URL |
|---|
| Use IMDS to retrieve Azure Load Balancer metadata | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/howto-load-balancer-imds |
| Query load balancer and VM IPs via IMDS | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/instance-metadata-service-load-balancer |
| Retrieve Azure Load Balancer metrics using Azure Monitor CLI | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-monitor-metrics-cli |
| Query Azure Load Balancer metrics via REST API | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-query-metrics-rest-api |
Deployment
| Topic | URL |
|---|
| Replicate Azure Load Balancer configuration across regions | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/move-across-regions-azure-load-balancer |
| Automate Basic-to-Standard Load Balancer upgrade with PowerShell | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/upgrade-basic-standard-with-powershell |
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