Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator AssociateImplement and manage virtual networkingHard
A company has an Azure Virtual Network (VNet) in the West US 2 region and needs to deploy a highly available network virtual appliance (NVA) for advanced firewall and routing capabilities. The NVA must be deployed in an active-passive configuration to ensure high availability and automatic failover. Which Azure Load Balancer SKU supports this scenario?
- AGateway
- BStandard
- CBasic
- DInternal
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Standard
The Standard SKU Azure Load Balancer supports High Availability Ports, which is crucial for active-passive NVA deployments requiring automatic failover. High Availability Ports allow a single front-end IP to receive traffic for all ports and protocols, making it suitable for NVA scenarios where the NVA itself handles routing and port forwarding. The Basic SKU does not support this feature.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Gateway Load Balancer is designed for transparent insertion of NVAs in the data path, but Standard SKU is the general-purpose choice for active-passive NVA with High Availability Ports.
- C. Basic Load Balancer SKU does not support High Availability Ports, which are needed for active-passive NVA deployments.
- D. Internal is a type of Load Balancer (not a SKU) that can be Basic or Standard, referring to its frontend IP being private.
Standard Load Balancer for NVAs
The Azure Standard Load Balancer SKU supports High Availability Ports, a feature critical for deploying active-passive Network Virtual Appliances (NVAs) to ensure automatic failover and comprehensive traffic handling.
- Standard SKU supports High Availability Ports.
- HA Ports enable a single frontend to receive traffic on all ports/protocols.
- Essential for active-passive NVA deployments.
- Provides automatic failover for the NVA.
Memory trick: Standard SKU for NVAs, HA Ports for failover.