Question

Difficulty: MediumConfigure Azure Load Balancer

A cloud architect is designing a high-availability solution for an application running on three standalone Azure virtual machines. The virtual machines are named VM-App1, VM-App2, and VM-App3, and they are deployed in the East US region. These virtual machines are not associated with any Availability Sets or Virtual Machine Scale Sets. You need to configure a public-facing Azure Load Balancer to distribute inbound traffic across these three virtual machines.

Which two configuration choices must you make to ensure the load balancer functions correctly? (Select two.)

  1. Deploy the load balancer as a Standard SKU load balancer.Answer
  2. Associate a Standard SKU public IP address with the frontend IP configuration.Answer
  3. C
    Deploy the load balancer as a Basic SKU load balancer.
  4. D
    Associate a Basic SKU public IP address with the frontend IP configuration.
  5. E
    Associate a Basic SKU public IP address directly with each backend virtual machine's network interface.

Answer

Deploy the load balancer as a Standard SKU load balancer, and associate a Standard SKU public IP address with the frontend IP configuration.
Deploying the load balancer as a Standard SKU and associating a Standard SKU public IP address with the frontend IP configuration is correct. Standard Load Balancers support backend pools consisting of standalone virtual machines in a virtual network, whereas Basic Load Balancers require virtual machines to be part of the same Availability Set or Virtual Machine Scale Set. Additionally, Standard Load Balancers require Standard SKU public IP addresses for their frontend configurations; mixing Standard Load Balancers with Basic SKU public IP addresses is not supported.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the backend pool resource requirements.
The target virtual machines are standalone and not part of an Availability Set or Virtual Machine Scale Set.
This constraint dictates the SKU of the load balancer, as Basic Load Balancers do not support backend pools containing standalone virtual machines.
2
Select the correct Load Balancer SKU.
Standard SKU Load Balancer is selected.
Only the Standard SKU Load Balancer can distribute traffic to standalone virtual machines across a virtual network.
3
Determine the public IP address SKU requirement for the frontend configuration.
Standard SKU public IP address is selected.
Standard Load Balancers require that all associated IP resources, including the frontend IP configurations, use the Standard SKU.

Key Concept

Azure Load Balancer SKU features and IP compatibility constraints require matching SKUs (Standard Load Balancer with Standard Public IP) and define which backend pool member types (such as standalone VMs) are supported.
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