Transcribed
Azure Load Balancer — Simply Explained
Jul 16, 2026 ·
15m 55s
Download and listen anywhere
Download your favorite episodes and enjoy them, wherever you are! Sign up or log in now to access offline listening.
Azure Load Balancer — Simply Explained
Description
If your app runs on a single VM, one crash or traffic spike takes it offline. This episode explains Azure Load Balancer in plain English for admins and developers new...
show more
If your app runs on a single VM, one crash or traffic spike takes it offline. This episode explains Azure Load Balancer in plain English for admins and developers new to Azure networking, from frontend IPs and health probes to distribution logic and SKUs. You will also learn the common pitfalls and when to choose Application Gateway, Front Door or Traffic Manager instead.
In this episode
Key takeaways
Worth quoting
“The load balancer itself doesn't do the work. It's a traffic cop, not a worker.” – Mirko Peters (02:46)
“Without health probes, your load balancer would just blindly send traffic to every server in the pool, even the dead ones.” – Mirko Peters (04:57)
Explore more on M365.FM
Follow and rate M365.FM in your podcast app, and join the free M365 community at m365con.net.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-microsoft-365-azure-cloud-power-platform-ai--6704921/support.
show less
In this episode
- 00:00 – Why one server is not enough
- 01:51 – The smart reception desk
- 03:09 – Frontend IP, backend pool and rules
- 04:51 – Health probes
- 06:30 – How traffic gets distributed
- 08:36 – Public versus internal
- 10:11 – Standard, gateway, basic and common pitfalls
- 14:00 – Load balancer vs. Application Gateway vs. Traffic Manager
Key takeaways
- Azure Load Balancer is a layer 4 traffic director: a frontend IP receives traffic, rules map it to a backend pool, and health probes keep failed servers out of rotation.
- Traffic is spread by a five-tuple hash per flow, and session persistence should only be enabled when an application truly needs it.
- Use the Standard SKU with at least two backend instances and check NSG rules, probe port and route tables first when probes report unhealthy servers.
Worth quoting
“The load balancer itself doesn't do the work. It's a traffic cop, not a worker.” – Mirko Peters (02:46)
“Without health probes, your load balancer would just blindly send traffic to every server in the pool, even the dead ones.” – Mirko Peters (04:57)
Explore more on M365.FM
- Episode page: the full episode with chapters, quotes and FAQ on Azure Load Balancer
- Microsoft Azure – the cloud platform whose layer 4 load balancer, SKUs and related traffic services are explained
- Azure Traffic Manager – the DNS-level option for routing users to the nearest region, compared at the end
- Mirko Peters – host who explains Azure Load Balancer with a smart reception desk analogy
- Related episode: Azure Front Door - Simply Explained
Follow and rate M365.FM in your podcast app, and join the free M365 community at m365con.net.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-microsoft-365-azure-cloud-power-platform-ai--6704921/support.
Information
| Author | Mirko Peters M365, Azure & AI |
| Organization | m365 FM |
| Website | www.m365.fm |
| Tags |
Copyright 2026 - Spreaker Inc. an iHeartMedia Company
Comments