How To Use Azure Application Gateway for Web Application Firewall and Load Balancing?

Microsoft Azure offers an application gateway solution that enables users to control inbound traffic to their web apps. For improved security and speed, it provides load balancing capabilities and a web application firewallIn this article, we’ll walk you through using Azure Application Gateway for load balancing and web application firewall.

Terminologies

Before moving on to the guide, let’s first define a few terms that are associated with Azure Application Gateway.

• Backend Pool:  A collection of physical or virtual servers to which the Application Gateway will distribute traffic load.
• Listener: The Application Gateway’s listener setting determines how it will look for incoming traffic.
• Routing Rules: These guidelines describe how the Application Gateway will route traffic to the appropriate backend pool.
• Web Application Firewall (WAF):  A firewall that monitors and filters incoming traffic to shield web applications from threats is known as a web application firewall (WAF).

How To Utilise Azure Application Gateway for Load Balancing and Web Application Firewall?

Step 1: Create an Azure Application Gateway Resource in the first step.

The procedures listed below to create an Azure Application Gateway resource:

• Select the “Create a resource” option on the Azure Portal.

• Choose “Application Gateway” from the list of results after conducting a search.

• Select a resource group, a subscription, and a name for your application gateway

• Set up your application gateway’s size according to your requirements.

• Choose the area where your Application Gateway will be installed.

• Set up your application gateway’s size according to your requirements.

Step 2:  Configure Frontend Pools

The steps following should be followed to configure frontend pools:

• Choose “Frontend pools” from the menu 
• Select Frontend IP address type

• Click on “Add new” to create new public IP address
• Give name to you Public IP address and then click on “OK”

Step 3: Configure Backend Pools 

The steps following should be followed to configure backend pools:

• Choose “Backend pools” from the menu 
• To build a new backend pool, click “Add.”

• Give your backend pool a name and indicate the backend servers’ target type (IP address or hostname).
• Include the hostnames or IP addresses of your backend servers.
• To save the backend pool, click “Add.”

Step 4: Configure Routing Rules

The steps below should be followed to configure routing rules:

• Select “Configuration” tab
• Click on “Add a routing rule”

• Give details about your routing rule’s listener, backend pool, and routing criteria (URL path, hostname, or HTTP header).
• If other customizations, like rewrite or redirection rules, are required, add them.

• Click on “Backend Targets” 
• Add Backend target Poll. To create new Cick on “Add new”
• Add Name of Backend Poll and click “Add”

• Similarly Click on “Add new” to add new backend settings.
• Give backend settings name and other additional details if required.
• Cleck on “Add” to add backend settings.

• After completion Click on “Add” to add routing rules sucessfully.

Step 5: 

• Click on “Review + Create” tab and click on Create 
• Your application gateway will be deployed

Similarly, Repeat the same steps in case of Web Application firewall resource pack and deploy it .

Overall, Azure Application Gateway offers a quick and efficient method for cloud-based load balancing of web applications. You can quickly divide traffic across several servers with its robust load-balancing and routing features, preserving the high availability and responsiveness of your online service.