What is Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?

1. Pre-requisite Knowledge –

Before we start with the understanding of what is Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, we should know –

1. Basic knowledge of cloud computing and its services
2. Basic knowledge of Microsoft Azure

2. Background –

In this article, we will explore the Microsoft Azure Application Gateway and its major services. Before we look into what is Microsoft Azure cloud Application Gateway, let's understand -

• Web site traffic is the most critical factor to consider serving the request by processing on the server.
• For business, more is the traffic on site more is the business opportunities.
• Sometimes, if our resources are not capable to execute and process the request then web site may crash.
• It is generally happening when so many users are visiting the web site which increases the traffic or amount of data sent and receive over the site.
• Hence, it is very important to think about the application load balancing mechanism while designing the application.

3. Introduction of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway –
   1. Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables us to manage traffic to your web applications.
   2. Usually, the traffic load balancer routes the user's request (traffic) based on the source IP and port to the destination using transport layer TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol).
      
      Image Source – Microsoft Docs
      
      
   3. Azure Application gateway has added advantage on top of this like we can route the request based on additional parameters like HTTP request and its URI path. This type of routing is known as the application layer (OSI layer 7) load balancing.
      
      
      
      

      

       

      Image Source – Microsoft Docs
      
      
   4. Azure application gateway supports SSL/TLS termination at the gateway. It helps optional choice for the additional overhead of encryption and decryption of the request. However, if we are implementing a secured application then it is not recommended.

4. Azure application gateway features –
   1. Azure application gateway has the ability to automatically scale up and down the resources based on the traffic and load patterns.
   2. Static VIP – It supports static VIP type over the lifetime of the gateway.
   3. We can route the requests based on the URL and its rules.
   4. A single application gateway can be utilized for one or more applications.
   5. Azure application gateway can deploy on the multiple availability zones which help in fault resiliency. It also avoids the additional provision of gateway for each zone.
   6. Application Gateway provides native support for the WebSocket and HTTP/2 protocols.
   7. Connection draining – it helps you achieve graceful removal of backend pool members during planned service updates.
   8. We can create our own custom error page rather than displaying the default error page to the users.
   9. We can rewrite the HTTP headers using this gateway. It supports add, remove or update the HTTP request as well as response.
   10. The Application Gateway Standard is currently offered in three sizes: Small, Medium, and Large.
   11. Application Gateway is integrated with several Azure services.
   12. We can direct web traffic with Azure Application Gateway using Azure portal, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI.

5. Documentation
6. FAQ
7. Reference Links –

• https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/services/application-gateway/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/overview
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/application-gateway-faq
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/
• https://blog.halfabubbleout.com/blog/why-is-website-traffic-important-to-my-business
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_traffic
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/quick-create-portal
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/quick-create-powershell
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-gateway/quick-create-cli

Conclusion - In this article, we have learned the overview of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway and its service.