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quickstart-load-balancer-standard-internal-portal.md

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title Quickstart: Create an internal load balancer - Azure portal
titleSuffix Azure Load Balancer
description Learn to create an internal Azure Load Balancer and test it with two virtual machines. Learn how to configure traffic rules and health probes to distribute traffic across multiple VMs.
services load-balancer
author mbender-ms
ms.service azure-load-balancer
ms.topic quickstart
ms.date 01/28/2026
ms.author mbender
ms.custom
mvc
mode-ui
template-quickstart
engagement-fy24
sfi-image-nochange

Quickstart: Create an internal load balancer to load balance VMs using the Azure portal

Get started with Azure Load Balancer by using the Azure portal to create an internal load balancer for a backend pool with two virtual machines. Other resources include Azure Bastion, NAT Gateway, a virtual network, and the required subnets.

:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-load-balancer-standard-internal-portal/internal-load-balancer-resources.png" alt-text="Diagram of resources deployed for internal load balancer." lightbox="media/quickstart-load-balancer-standard-internal-portal/internal-load-balancer-resources.png":::

Note

In this example, you create a NAT gateway to provide outbound Internet access. The outbound rules tab in the configuration is bypassed and isn't needed with the NAT gateway. For more information on Azure NAT gateway, see What is Azure Virtual Network NAT? For more information about outbound connections in Azure, see Source Network Address Translation (SNAT) for outbound connections

Prerequisites

Sign in to Azure

Sign in to the Azure portal.

[!INCLUDE load-balancer-nat-gateway]

[!INCLUDE load-balancer-create-bastion]

Create load balancer

In this section, you create a load balancer that load balances virtual machines.

During the creation of the load balancer, you configure:

  • Frontend IP address
  • Backend pool
  • Inbound load-balancing rules

  1. In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Load balancer. Select Load balancers in the search results.

  2. In the Load balancer page, select Create.

  3. In the Basics tab of the Create load balancer page, enter, or select the following information:

    Setting Value
    Project details
    Subscription Select your subscription.
    Resource group Select load-balancer-rg.
    Instance details
    Name Enter load-balancer.
    Region Select East US.
    SKU Leave the default Standard.
    Type Select Internal.
    Tier Leave the default of Regional.

    :::image type="content" source="./media/quickstart-load-balancer-standard-internal-portal/create-standard-internal-load-balancer.png" alt-text="Screenshot of create standard load balancer basics tab." border="true":::

  4. Select Next: Frontend IP configuration at the bottom of the page.

  5. In Frontend IP configuration, select + Add a frontend IP configuration, then enter or select the following information:

    Setting Value
    Name Enter lb-frontend.
    Private IP address version Select IPv4 or IPv6 depending on your requirements.
    Setting Value
    Name Enter lb-frontend.
    Virtual network Select lb-vnet.
    Subnet Select backend-subnet.
    Assignment Select Dynamic.
    Availability zone Select Zone-redundant.

  6. Select Save.

  7. Select Next: Backend pools at the bottom of the page.

  8. In the Backend pools tab, select + Add a backend pool.

  9. Enter lb-backend-pool for Name in Add backend pool.

  10. Select IP Address for Backend Pool Configuration.

  11. Select Save.

  12. Select the Next: Inbound rules button at the bottom of the page.

  13. In Load balancing rule in the Inbound rules tab, select + Add a load balancing rule.

  14. In Add load balancing rule, enter or select the following information:

    Setting Value
    Name Enter lb-HTTP-rule.
    IP Version Select IPv4 or IPv6 depending on your requirements.
    Frontend IP address Select lb-frontend(Dynamic).
    Backend pool Select lb-backend-pool.
    Protocol Select TCP.
    Port Enter 80.
    Backend port Enter 80.
    Health probe Select Create new.
    In Name, enter lb-health-probe.
    Select TCP in Protocol.
    Leave the rest of the defaults, and select Save.
    Session persistence Select None.
    Idle timeout (minutes) Enter or select 15.
    Enable TCP reset Select checkbox.
    Enable Floating IP Leave the default of unselected.

  15. Select Save.

  16. Select the blue Review + create button at the bottom of the page.

  17. Select Create.

[!INCLUDE load-balancer-create-2-virtual-machines]

[!INCLUDE ephemeral-ip-note.md]

Create test virtual machine

In this section, you create a VM named lb-TestVM. This VM is used to test the load balancer configuration.

  1. In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Virtual machine. Select Virtual machines in the search results.

  2. In Virtual machines, select + Create > Azure virtual machine.

  3. In Create a virtual machine, enter or select the values in the Basics tab:

    Setting Value
    Project Details
    Subscription Select your Azure subscription.
    Resource Group Select load-balancer-rg.
    Instance details
    Virtual machine name Enter lb-TestVM.
    Region Select (US) East US.
    Availability Options Select No infrastructure redundancy required.
    Security type Select Standard.
    Image Select Windows Server 2022 Datacenter - x64 Gen2.
    Azure Spot instance Leave the default of unselected.
    Size Choose VM size or take default setting.
    Administrator account
    Username Enter a username.
    Password Enter a password.
    Confirm password Reenter password.
    Inbound port rules
    Public inbound ports Select None.

  4. Select the Networking tab, or select Next: Disks, then Next: Networking.

  5. In the Networking tab, select or enter:

    Setting Value
    Network interface
    Virtual network lb-vnet.
    Subnet backend-subnet.
    Public IP Select None.
    NIC network security group Select Advanced.
    Configure network security group Select lb-NSG created in the previous step.

  6. Select Review + create.

  7. Review the settings, and then select Create.

Install IIS

  1. In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Virtual machine. Select Virtual machines in the search results.

  2. Select lb-vm1.

  3. In the Overview page, select Connect, then Bastion.

  4. Enter the username and password entered during VM creation.

  5. Select Connect.

  6. On the server desktop, navigate to Windows Administrative Tools > Windows PowerShell > Windows PowerShell.

  7. In the PowerShell Window, execute the following commands to:

    1. Install the IIS server.
    2. Remove the default iisstart.htm file.
    3. Add a new iisstart.htm file that displays the name of the VM.
    # Install IIS server role
Install-WindowsFeature -name Web-Server -IncludeManagementTools

# Remove default htm file
Remove-Item  C:\inetpub\wwwroot\iisstart.htm

# Add a new htm file that displays server name
Add-Content -Path "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\iisstart.htm" -Value $("Hello World from " + $env:computername)

  8. Close the Bastion session with lb-vm1.

  9. Repeat steps 1 through 8 to install IIS and the updated iisstart.htm file on lb-VM2.

Test the load balancer

In this section, you test the load balancer by connecting to the lb-TestVM and verifying the webpage.

  1. In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Load balancer. Select Load balancers in the search results.

  2. Select load-balancer.

  3. Make note or copy the address next to Private IP address in the Overview of load-balancer. If you can't see the Private IP address field, select See more in the information window.

  4. In the search box at the top of the portal, enter Virtual machine. Select Virtual machines in the search results.

  5. Select lb-TestVM.

  6. In the Overview page, select Connect, then Bastion.

  7. Enter the username and password entered during VM creation.

  8. Open Microsoft Edge on lb-TestVM.

  9. Enter the IP address from the previous step into the address bar of the browser. The custom page displaying one of the backend server names is displayed on the browser. In this example, it's 10.1.0.4.

    :::image type="content" source="./media/quickstart-load-balancer-standard-internal-portal/load-balancer-test.png" alt-text="Screenshot shows a browser window displaying the customized page, as expected." border="true":::

  10. To see the load balancer distribute traffic across both VMs, navigate to the VM shown in the browser message, and stop the VM.

  11. Refresh the browser window. The page should still display the customized page. The load balancer is now only sending traffic to the remaining VM.

Clean up resources

When no longer needed, delete the resource group, load balancer, and all related resources. To do so, select the resource group load-balancer-rg that contains the resources and then select Delete.

Next steps

In this quickstart, you:

  • Created an internal Azure Load Balancer

  • Attached two VMs to the load balancer

  • Configured the load balancer traffic rule, health probe, and then tested the load balancer

To learn more about Azure Load Balancer, continue to:

[!div class="nextstepaction"] What is Azure Load Balancer?