Azure Traffic Manager: Global DNS Load Balancing

Traffic Manager routes traffic across global Azure regions using DNS. Performance routing, failover, geographic distribution—all at the DNS layer.

Routing Methods

Method	Use Case
Priority	Active/passive failover
Weighted	A/B testing, gradual migration
Performance	Route to closest endpoint
Geographic	Compliance, data residency
Multivalue	Return multiple healthy endpoints
Subnet	Route specific IPs to specific endpoints

Creating Traffic Manager Profile

# Create profile
az network traffic-manager profile create \
    --name my-traffic-manager \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --routing-method Performance \
    --unique-dns-name myapp-global \
    --ttl 60 \
    --protocol HTTPS \
    --port 443 \
    --path /health

# Add endpoints
az network traffic-manager endpoint create \
    --name eastus-endpoint \
    --profile-name my-traffic-manager \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type azureEndpoints \
    --target-resource-id /subscriptions/.../sites/myapp-eastus \
    --endpoint-status Enabled

az network traffic-manager endpoint create \
    --name westus-endpoint \
    --profile-name my-traffic-manager \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type azureEndpoints \
    --target-resource-id /subscriptions/.../sites/myapp-westus \
    --endpoint-status Enabled

Priority (Failover)

az network traffic-manager profile create \
    --name failover-profile \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --routing-method Priority

# Primary endpoint
az network traffic-manager endpoint create \
    --name primary \
    --profile-name failover-profile \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type azureEndpoints \
    --target-resource-id /subscriptions/.../sites/myapp-primary \
    --priority 1

# Secondary endpoint
az network traffic-manager endpoint create \
    --name secondary \
    --profile-name failover-profile \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type azureEndpoints \
    --target-resource-id /subscriptions/.../sites/myapp-secondary \
    --priority 2

Weighted (A/B Testing)

az network traffic-manager profile create \
    --name weighted-profile \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --routing-method Weighted

# 90% to production
az network traffic-manager endpoint create \
    --name production \
    --profile-name weighted-profile \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type azureEndpoints \
    --target-resource-id /subscriptions/.../sites/myapp-prod \
    --weight 90

# 10% to canary
az network traffic-manager endpoint create \
    --name canary \
    --profile-name weighted-profile \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type azureEndpoints \
    --target-resource-id /subscriptions/.../sites/myapp-canary \
    --weight 10

Geographic Routing

az network traffic-manager profile create \
    --name geo-profile \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --routing-method Geographic

az network traffic-manager endpoint create \
    --name europe \
    --profile-name geo-profile \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type azureEndpoints \
    --target-resource-id /subscriptions/.../sites/myapp-europe \
    --geo-mapping GEO-EU

az network traffic-manager endpoint create \
    --name us \
    --profile-name geo-profile \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type azureEndpoints \
    --target-resource-id /subscriptions/.../sites/myapp-us \
    --geo-mapping GEO-NA

Nested Profiles

# Child profile (performance within region)
az network traffic-manager profile create \
    --name us-performance \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --routing-method Performance

# Parent profile (geographic between regions)
az network traffic-manager profile create \
    --name global-geo \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --routing-method Geographic

# Nested endpoint
az network traffic-manager endpoint create \
    --name us-nested \
    --profile-name global-geo \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type nestedEndpoints \
    --target-resource-id /subscriptions/.../trafficmanagerprofiles/us-performance \
    --min-child-endpoints 1 \
    --geo-mapping GEO-NA

Health Monitoring

# Custom health check
az network traffic-manager profile update \
    --name my-traffic-manager \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --protocol HTTPS \
    --port 443 \
    --path /api/health \
    --interval 30 \
    --timeout 10 \
    --tolerated-failures 3

Endpoint Status

# Check endpoint health
az network traffic-manager endpoint show \
    --name eastus-endpoint \
    --profile-name my-traffic-manager \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --type azureEndpoints \
    --query "endpointMonitorStatus"

Traffic Manager: global traffic distribution made simple.