KEMP LoadMaster in Windows Azure

KEMP’s VLM for AZURE

Exciting times for KEMP Technologies as they have recently released a new Virtual LoadMaster for Windows Azure. This brings new Load Balancing features to Windows Azure.

You can request a copy from KEMP’s Website:  http://kemptechnologies.com/load-balancer-for-azure

The current Version is free and comes with free email support.

Windows Azure’s Load Balancing features only offers round robin load balancing, KEMP’s VLM offers layer 7 load balancing, content switching, and caching & compression.

check out the difference in capabilities:

Please see the comparative matrix showing the features available for VLM family: http://kemptechnologies.com/loadmaster-family-virtual-server-load-balancers-application-delivery-controllers .

I received my copy this morning and used my surface RT to deploy the VLM to Azure.

All I can say is the Surface RT is great for administering Azure but does have some annoying limitations. All I want is PowerShell modules ! Is it too much to ask.

Importing the VLM to Azure:

for newbies on azure please see the azure documentation before attempting this: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/linux/common-tasks/upload-a-vhd/

for more information on Azure cmdlets please see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/jj156055.aspx

Ok…. the first thing you need to do is create a folder on the root directory of c:\ (c:\Azure) to store the required files whilst importing the VLM to Azure.

Download and install all the prerequisites for administering Azure http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

Download the VLM-Azure VHD from KEMP, you can request this from: http://kemptechnologies.com/load-balancer-for-azure

check that the MD5 checksum is 1BA119008517A9394BE27854A022D575 ” the current Azure Version is 7.0-3″ (at the time of writing this post)

Open up PowerShell for Azure

Get-AzurePublishSettingsFile

download and save the publishing settings into the folder called Azure you just created.

Import-AzurePublishSettingsFile C:\azure\pubazure.publishsettings

import the publishing settings.

Import the VHD to Azure:

Add-AzureVhd -LocalFilePath 'C:\azure\LoadMaster VLM Lite.vhd' -Destination "http://systest.blob.core.windows.net/vlm/vlmazure.vhd"

take note that you will need the blob endpoint address to upload to Azure

Add-AzureVMImage -ImageName VLMAzure -MediaLocation http://test.blob.core.windows.net/vlm/vlmazure.vhd -Label VLMAzure -OS Linux -Verbose

You should now see the VLM in the my images container.

Deploying the VLM inside Azure

Now that you have imported the VLM into Azure you can now deploy it as a Virtual Machine.

The first thing you need to do is create a VM.

You will need to select a new virtual machine from gallery.

select the VLM you imported earlier.

Un tick “UPLOAD COMPATIBLE SSH KEY FOR AUTHENTICATION” and select “PROVIDE A PASSWORD” enter an password 8 characters long

Ensure that you have a virtual network configured.

add the management endpoint as you will need this is access the Loadmaster webpage.

it will take a few minutes for the VLM to provision, once complete you will see the status as running.

Basic Configuration of the Azure VLM

The dns name is located in the VM dashboard

Enter the DNS name and the port :8443

 "https://vlmazure01.cloudapp.net:8443"

you will need to enter the default KEMP Username: bal Password: 1fourall

Agree to the terms and conditions

you will then need to change the default password to one of your choosing.

Like with the on premise VLM’s you can also access the azure VLM via the Shell using SSH:

There you have it, a KEMP LoadMaster in Windows Azure.

Look forward to my next post where I will be load balancing workloads in azure with the VLM.

A big thanks to Iain Kenney and Bhargav Shukla at Kemp Technologies for their help.