Question

Difficulty: MediumDesign Traffic Routing and Failover Strategies

Match each architectural routing and failover requirement with the most appropriate Azure load balancing or traffic routing service.

  • A global web application requires path-based routing, SSL offloading, and web application firewall protection at the edge before traffic enters Azure regions.Azure Front Door
  • A gaming platform needs to route low-latency UDP traffic globally to regional backends using a single static IP address acting as the entry point.Azure Cross-region Load Balancer
  • A legacy retail application in a single region requires cookie-based session affinity to ensure users stay connected to the same backend virtual machine instance.Azure Application Gateway
  • An enterprise requires global failover for a hybrid environment where traffic must be directed to external non-Azure endpoints without proxying the network payload.Azure Traffic Manager

Answer

The architectural requirements match as follows: Global SSL offloading and WAF routing maps to Azure Front Door; global UDP routing via a single static IP maps to Azure Cross-region Load Balancer; single-region cookie session affinity maps to Azure Application Gateway; and DNS-based hybrid routing to external endpoints without proxying maps to Azure Traffic Manager.
Each matching pair aligns a specific application layer, scope, and feature requirement with the correct Azure service. Azure Front Door handles global HTTP/HTTPS with SSL offloading and WAF. Azure Cross-region Load Balancer provides global Layer 4 Anycast routing for TCP/UDP. Azure Application Gateway provides regional Layer 7 capabilities like session affinity. Azure Traffic Manager provides DNS-based redirection, making it suitable for hybrid endpoints without proxying.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the layer and scope for the first scenario.
The requirement involves global HTTP/HTTPS traffic, path-based routing, SSL offloading, and WAF protection. This indicates a Layer 7 global service, which matches Azure Front Door.
Azure Front Door is the only service that combines global scope, Layer 7 HTTP/HTTPS features, SSL termination, and native WAF integration.
2
Analyze the protocol and IP configuration for the second scenario.
The requirement involves low-latency UDP traffic globally using a single static IP address. This points to a Layer 4 global load balancing solution.
Azure Cross-region Load Balancer uses Anycast IP to route Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) traffic globally with ultra-low latency.
3
Analyze the regional requirements for the third scenario.
The requirement is for a single-region HTTP/HTTPS application needing cookie-based session affinity for backend virtual machines.
Azure Application Gateway is a regional Layer 7 load balancer that provides cookie-based session affinity, unlike global services which route between regions.
4
Analyze the routing mechanism for the fourth scenario.
The requirement is global failover for a hybrid environment to external endpoints without proxying the network payload.
Azure Traffic Manager uses DNS-based routing to return client endpoints directly, bypassing the network proxy layer and supporting external hybrid endpoints.

Key Concept

Selecting the appropriate global or regional Azure load balancing service based on protocol (Layer 4 vs Layer 7), routing method (DNS vs Anycast), and features (session affinity, SSL offloading, WAF).
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