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 Azure Load Balancer issues using health event logs, metrics, alerts, and tests of public frontend reachability to troubleshoot connectivity and availability problems. | | Best Practices | L45-L50 | Guidance on designing and deploying Azure Load Balancer, plus using Standard Load Balancer with VM scale sets for high availability, scaling, and configuration best practices. | | Decision Making | L51-L58 | Guidance on choosing Load Balancer SKUs, upgrading Basic to Standard, migrating AWS NLB workloads, and moving from inbound NAT rules v1 to v2. | | Architecture & Design Patterns | L59-L63 | Design patterns for traffic distribution and session affinity, plus guidance for configuring outbound internet connectivity and SNAT behavior with Azure Load Balancer. | | Limits & Quotas | L64-L72 | Limits, behaviors, and tuning for Load Balancer health probes, SNAT port usage, TCP idle timeouts, and TCP reset handling, plus related FAQs and configuration guidance. | | Security | L73-L78 | Securing Azure Load Balancer with NSGs and other controls, and enabling/configuring Azure DDoS Protection to defend against volumetric and protocol attacks. | | Configuration | L79-L94 | Configuring Azure Load Balancer behavior: backends/frontends (including cross-subscription), rules, health probes, traffic distribution, outbound/SNAT, monitoring, and IPv6/DHCPv6 settings. | | Integrations & Coding Patterns | L95-L101 | Code samples and patterns for probing health, reading load balancer/VM metadata via IMDS, and retrieving Azure Load Balancer metrics using CLI and REST APIs | | Deployment | L102-L106 | 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 Azure Load Balancer health events | 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 | |-------|-----| | 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 |

Limits & Quotas

| Topic | URL | |-------|-----| | Configure and tune Azure Load Balancer health probes | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-custom-probe-overview | | Azure Load Balancer FAQs with limits and behaviors | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-faqs | | Understand SNAT port limits for Azure Load Balancer outbound | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/load-balancer-outbound-connections | | Configure Azure Load Balancer TCP idle timeouts | 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 | | 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 | | Configure Azure Load Balancer portal settings | 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 probe settings in portal | 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 | |-------|-----| | Implement custom HTTP/HTTPS health probes with Python for Azure Load Balancer | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/create-custom-http-health-probe-howto | | Use IMDS to retrieve Azure Load Balancer metadata | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/howto-load-balancer-imds | | 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 |