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Azure Application Gateway is a Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) load balancer that provides advanced traffic routing, SSL termination, and web application firewall (WAF) capabilities. It is the go-to service for load balancing web applications that need URL-based routing, cookie-based session affinity, or centralised SSL management.
| Feature | Layer 4 (Load Balancer) | Layer 7 (Application Gateway) |
|---|---|---|
| Routing decisions | IP, port, protocol | URL path, hostname, headers, cookies |
| SSL termination | No | Yes |
| WAF | No | Yes |
| WebSocket support | Yes (pass-through) | Yes (native) |
| URL rewriting | No | Yes |
| Cookie affinity | No | Yes |
Use Azure Load Balancer when you need simple, high-throughput TCP/UDP distribution. Use Application Gateway when you need HTTP-aware routing and security features.
Application Gateway sits in a dedicated subnet within your VNet and acts as a reverse proxy. It receives client requests on its frontend IP, evaluates routing rules, and forwards traffic to the appropriate backend pool.
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