M05-Unit 4 Deploy Azure Application Gateway

Exercise scenario

In this exercise, you use the Azure portal to create an application gateway. Then you test it to make sure it works correctly.

Note: An interactive lab simulation is available that allows you to click through this lab at your own pace. You may find slight differences between the interactive simulation and the hosted lab, but the core concepts and ideas being demonstrated are the same.

Estimated time: 25 minutes

The application gateway directs application web traffic to specific resources in a backend pool. You assign listeners to ports, create rules, and add resources to a backend pool. For the sake of simplicity, this article uses a simple setup with a public front-end IP, a basic listener to host a single site on the application gateway, a basic request routing rule, and two virtual machines in the backend pool.

For Azure to communicate between the resources that you create, it needs a virtual network. You can either create a new virtual network or use an existing one. In this example, you’ll create a new virtual network while you create the application gateway. Application Gateway instances are created in separate subnets. You create two subnets in this example: one for the application gateway, and another for the backend servers.

In this exercise, you will:

• Task 1: Create an application gateway
• Task 2: Create virtual machines
• Task 3: Add backend servers to backend pool
• Task 4: Test the application gateway

Task 1: Create an application gateway

1. Sign in to the Azure portal with your Azure account.

2. On any Azure Portal page, in Search resources, services and docs (G+/), enter application gateway, and then select Application gateways from the results.

3. On the Application gateways page, select + Create.

4. On the Create application gateway Basics tab, enter, or select the following information:

   Setting	Value
   Subscription	Select your subscription.
   Resource group	Select Create new ContosoResourceGroup
   Application Gateway	ContosoAppGateway
   Region	Select East US
   Virtual Network	Select Create new

5. In Create virtual network, enter, or select the following information:

   Setting	Value
   Name	ContosoVNet
   ADDRESS SPACE
   Address range	10.0.0.0/16
   SUBNETS
   Subnet name	Change default to AGSubnet
   Address range	10.0.0.0/24

6. Select OK to return to the Create application gateway Basics tab.

7. Accept the default values for the other settings and then select Next: Frontends.

8. On the Frontends tab, verify Frontend IP address type is set to Public.

9. Select Add new for the Public IP address and enter AGPublicIPAddress for the public IP address name, and then select OK.

10. Select Next: Backends.

11. On the Backends tab, select Add a backend pool.

12. On the Add a backend pool window that opens, enter the following values to create an empty backend pool:

    Setting	Value
    Name	BackendPool
    Add backend pool without targets	Yes

13. On the Add a backend pool window, select Add to save the backend pool configuration and return to the Backends tab.

14. On the Backends tab, select Next: Configuration.

15. On the Configuration tab, you’ll connect the frontend and backend pool you created using a routing rule.

16. On the Routing rules column, select Add a routing rule.

17. On the Rule name box, enter RoutingRule.

18. For Priority enter 100.

19. On the Listener tab, enter or select the following information:

    Setting	Value
    Listener name	Listener
    Frontend IP	Select Public IPv4

20. Accept the default values for the other settings on the Listener tab.

    

21. Select the Backend targets tab to configure the rest of the routing rule.

22. On the Backend targets tab, enter or select the following information:

    Setting	Value
    Target type	Backend pool
    Backend Settings	Add new

23. In Add a Backend Setting, enter or select the following information:

    Setting	Value
    Backend setting name	HTTPSetting
    Backend port	80

24. Accept the default values for the other settings in the Add a Backend Setting window, then select Add to return to Add a routing rule.

25. Select Add to save the routing rule and return to the Configuration tab.

26. Select Next: Tags and then Next: Review + create.

27. Review the settings on the Review + create tab

28. Select Create to create the virtual network, the public IP address, and the application gateway.

29. It may take several minutes for Azure to create the application gateway. Wait until the deployment finishes successfully.

Add a subnet for a backend servers

1. Search for and select the ContosoVNet. Verify the AGSubnet was created.

2. To create the BackendSubnet, select Settings and then Subnets. Be sure to Add the subnet when finished.

   Setting	Value
   Subnet name	BackendSubnet
   Address range	10.0.1.0/24

Task 2: Create virtual machines

1. In the Azure portal, select the Cloud Shell icon (top right). If necessary, configure the shell.
   • Select PowerShell.
   • Select No Storage Account required and your Subscription, then select Apply.
   • Wait for the terminal to create and a prompt to be displayed.

2. On the toolbar of the Cloud Shell pane, select Manage files and then Upload. Upload the following files: backend.json, backend.parameters.json, and install-iis.ps1.The files are available for download from the repository, \Allfiles\Exercises\M05 folder.

3. Deploy the following ARM templates to create the VMs needed for this exercise:

Note: You will be prompted to provide an Admin password.

   $RGName = "ContosoResourceGroup"
   
   New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -ResourceGroupName $RGName -TemplateFile backend.json -TemplateParameterFile backend.parameters.json

Note: Take time to review the backend.json file. There are two virtual machines being deployed. This will take a few minutes.

1. The command should complete successfully and list BackendVM1 and BackendVM2.

Install IIS on each virtual machine

1. Each backend server needs IIS installed.

2. Continue at the PowerShell prompt and use the provided script to install IIS on BackendVM1.

   Invoke-AzVMRunCommand -ResourceGroupName 'ContosoResourceGroup' -Name 'BackendVM1' -CommandId 'RunPowerShellScript' -ScriptPath 'install-iis.ps1'
   

Note: While you wait review the PowerShell script. Notice that the IIS home page is being customized to provide the virtual machine name.

1. Run the command again, this time for BackendVM2.

   Invoke-AzVMRunCommand -ResourceGroupName 'ContosoResourceGroup' -Name 'BackendVM2' -CommandId 'RunPowerShellScript' -ScriptPath 'install-iis.ps1'
   

   Note: Each command will take a couple of minutes to complete.

Task 3: Add backend servers to backend pool

1. On the Azure portal menu, select All resources or search for and select All resources. Then select ContosoAppGateway.

2. Under Settings, select Backend pools.

3. Select BackendPool.

4. On the Edit backend pool page, under Backend targets, in Target type, select Virtual machine.

5. Under Target, select BackendVM1-nic.

6. On Target type, select Virtual machine.

7. Under Target, select BackendVM2-nic.

   

8. Select Save and wait for the targets to be added.

9. Check to ensure the backend servers are healthy. Select Monitoring and then Backend Health. Both targets should be healthy.

   

Task 4: Test the application gateway

Although IIS isn’t required to create the application gateway, you installed it in this exercise to verify if Azure successfully created the application gateway.

Use IIS to test the application gateway

1. Find the public IP address for the application gateway on its Overview page.

   

2. Copy the public IP address, and then paste it into the address bar of your browser to browse that IP address.

3. Check the response. A valid response verifies that the application gateway was successfully created and can successfully connect with the backend.

   

4. Refresh the browser multiple times and you should see connections to both BackendVM1 and BackendVM2.

Congratulations! You have configured and tested an Azure Application Gateway.