application-gateway-create-probe-portal.md

title	titleSuffix	description	services	author	ms.service	ms.topic	ms.date	ms.author
Create a custom probe using the portal	Azure Application Gateway	Learn how to create a custom probe for Application Gateway by using the portal	application-gateway	greg-lindsay	application-gateway	how-to	07/09/2020	greglin

Create a custom probe for Application Gateway by using the portal

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• Azure portal
• Azure Resource Manager PowerShell
• Azure Classic PowerShell

In this article, you add a custom health probe to an existing application gateway through the Azure portal. Using the health probes, Azure Application Gateway monitors the health of the resources in the back-end pool.

Before you begin

If you do not already have an application gateway, visit Create an Application Gateway to create an application gateway to work with.

Create probe for Application Gateway v2 SKU

Probes are configured in a two-step process through the portal. The first step is to enter the values required for the probe configuration. In the second step, you test the backend health using this probe configuration and save the probe.

Enter probe properties

1. Sign in to the Azure portal. If you don't already have an account, you can sign up for a free one-month trial

2. In the Azure portal Favorites pane, click All resources. Click the application gateway in the All resources blade. If the subscription you selected already has several resources in it, you can enter partners.contoso.net in the Filter by name… box to easily access the application gateway.

3. Select Health probes and then select Add to add a new health probe.

   

4. On the Add health probe page, fill out the required information for the probe, and when complete select OK.

   Setting	Value	Details
   Name	customProbe	This value is a friendly name given to the probe that is accessible in the portal.
   Protocol	HTTP or HTTPS	The protocol that the health probe uses.
   Host	i.e contoso.com	This value is the name of the virtual host (different from the VM host name) running on the application server. The probe is sent to <protocol>://<host name>:<port>/<urlPath> This can also be the private IP of the server, or the public ip address, or the DNS entry of the public ip address. This will attempt to access the server when used with a file based path entry, and validate a specific file exists on the server as a health check.
   Pick host name from backend HTTP settings	Yes or No	Sets the host header in the probe to the host name from the HTTP settings to which this probe is associated to. Specially required in case of multi-tenant backends such as Azure app service. Learn more
   Pick port from backend HTTP settings	Yes or No	Sets the port of the health probe to the port from HTTP settings to which this probe is associated to. If you choose no, you can enter a custom destination port to use
   Port	1-65535	Custom port to be used for the health probes
   Path	/ or any valid path	The remainder of the full url for the custom probe. A valid path starts with '/'. For the default path of http://contoso.com just use '/'. You can also input a server path to a file for a static health check instead of web based. File paths should be used while using public / private ip, or public ip dns entry as the hostname entry.
   Interval (secs)	30	How often the probe is run to check for health. It is not recommended to set the lower than 30 seconds.
   Timeout (secs)	30	The amount of time the probe waits before timing out. If a valid response is not received within this time-out period, the probe is marked as failed. The timeout interval needs to be high enough that an http call can be made to ensure the backend health page is available. Note that the time-out value should not be more than the ‘Interval’ value used in this probe setting or the ‘Request timeout’ value in the HTTP setting which will be associated with this probe.
   Unhealthy threshold	3	Number of consecutive failed attempts to be considered unhealthy. The threshold can be set to 1 or more.
   Use probe matching conditions	Yes or No	By default, an HTTP(S) response with status code between 200 and 399 is considered healthy. You can change the acceptable range of backend response code or backend response body. Learn more
   HTTP Settings	selection from dropdown	Probe will get associated with the HTTP setting(s) selected here and therefore, will monitor the health of that backend pool which is associated with the selected HTTP setting. It will use the same port for the probe request as the one being used in the selected HTTP setting. You can only choose those HTTP setting(s) which are not associated with any other custom probe. Note that only those HTTP setting(s) are available for association which have the same protocol as the protocol chosen in this probe configuration and have the same state for the Pick Host Name From Backend HTTP setting switch.

   [!IMPORTANT] The probe will monitor health of the backend only when it is associated with one or more HTTP Setting(s). It will monitor back-end resources of those back-end pools which are associated to the HTTP setting(s) to which this probe is associated with. The probe request will be sent as <protocol>://<hostName>:<port>/<urlPath>.

Test backend health with the probe

After entering the probe properties, you can test the health of the back-end resources to verify that the probe configuration is correct and that the back-end resources are working as expected.

1. Select Test and note the result of the probe. The Application gateway tests the health of all the backend resources in the backend pools associated with the HTTP Setting(s) used for this probe.

   

2. If there are any unhealthy backend resources, then check the Details column to understand the reason for unhealthy state of the resource. If the resource has been marked unhealthy due to an incorrect probe configuration, then select the Go back to probe link and edit the probe configuration. Otherwise, if the resource has been marked unhealthy due to an issue with the backend, then resolve the issues with the backend resource and then test the backend again by selecting the Go back to probe link and select Test.

   [!NOTE] You can choose to save the probe even with unhealthy backend resources, but it is not recommended. This is because the Application Gateway will not forward requests to the backend servers from the backend pool which are determined to be unhealthy by the probe. In case there are no healthy resources in a backend pool, you will not be able to access your application and will get a HTTP 502 error.

   

3. Select Add to save the probe.

Create probe for Application Gateway v1 SKU

Probes are configured in a two-step process through the portal. The first step is to create the probe. In the second step, you add the probe to the backend http settings of the application gateway.

Create the probe

1. Sign in to the Azure portal. If you don't already have an account, you can sign up for a free one-month trial

2. In the Azure portal Favorites pane, select All resources. Select the application gateway in the All resources page. If the subscription you selected already has several resources in it, you can enter partners.contoso.net in the Filter by name… box to easily access the application gateway.

3. Select Probes and then select Add to add a probe.

   

4. On the Add health probe blade, fill out the required information for the probe, and when complete select OK.

   Setting	Value	Details
   Name	customProbe	This value is a friendly name given to the probe that is accessible in the portal.
   Protocol	HTTP or HTTPS	The protocol that the health probe uses.
   Host	i.e contoso.com	This value is the name of the virtual host (different from the VM host name) running on the application server. The probe is sent to (protocol)://(host name):(port from httpsetting)/urlPath. This is applicable when multi-site is configured on Application Gateway. If the Application Gateway is configured for a single site, then enter '127.0.0.1'. You can also input a server path to a file for a static health check instead of web based. File paths should be used while using public / private ip, or public ip dns entry as the hostname entry.
   Pick host name from backend HTTP settings	Yes or No	Sets the host header in the probe to the host name of the back-end resource in the back-end pool associated with the HTTP Setting to which this probe is associated to. Specially required in case of multi-tenant backends such as Azure app service. Learn more
   Path	/ or any valid path	The remainder of the full url for the custom probe. A valid path starts with '/'. For the default path of http://contoso.com just use '/' You can also input a server path to a file for a static health check instead of web based. File paths should be used while using public / private ip, or public ip dns entry as the hostname entry.
   Interval (secs)	30	How often the probe is run to check for health. It is not recommended to set the lower than 30 seconds.
   Timeout (secs)	30	The amount of time the probe waits before timing out. If a valid response is not received within this time-out period, the probe is marked as failed. The timeout interval needs to be high enough that an http call can be made to ensure the backend health page is available. Note that the time-out value should not be more than the ‘Interval’ value used in this probe setting or the ‘Request timeout’ value in the HTTP setting which will be associated with this probe.
   Unhealthy threshold	3	Number of consecutive failed attempts to be considered unhealthy. The threshold can be set to 1 or more.
   Use probe matching conditions	Yes or No	By default, an HTTP(S) response with status code between 200 and 399 is considered healthy. You can change the acceptable range of backend response code or backend response body. Learn more

   [!IMPORTANT] The host name is not the same as server name. This value is the name of the virtual host running on the application server. The probe is sent to <protocol>://<hostName>:<port from http settings>/<urlPath>

Add probe to the gateway

Now that the probe has been created, it is time to add it to the gateway. Probe settings are set on the backend http settings of the application gateway.

1. Click HTTP settings on the application gateway, to bring up the configuration blade click the current backend http settings listed in the window.

   

2. On the appGatewayBackEndHttpSettings settings page, check the Use custom probe checkbox and choose the probe created in the Create the probe section on the Custom probe drop-down. When complete, click Save and the settings are applied.

Next steps

View the health of the backend resources as determined by the probe using the backend health view.