Skip to content

Use HEAD health probes for Front Door backends#

Reliability · Front Door · 2021_03

Configure health probes to use HEAD instead of GET requests.

Description#

Azure Front Door supports sending HEAD or GET requests for health probes to backend endpoints. HTTP HEAD requests are identical to GET requests except that the server does not send a response body. To lower load and performance cost against backends use HEAD requests.

Recommendation#

Consider configuring health probes to query backend health endpoints using HEAD requests.

Examples#

Configure with Azure CLI#

Azure CLI snippet
az network front-door probe update --front-door-name '<front_door>' -n '<probe_name>' -g '<resource_group>' --probeMethod  'HEAD'

Configure with Azure PowerShell#

Azure PowerShell snippet
$probeSetting = New-AzFrontDoorHealthProbeSettingObject -Name '<probe_name>' -HealthProbeMethod 'HEAD'
Set-AzFrontDoor -Name '<front_door>' -ResourceGroupName '<resource_group>' -HealthProbeSetting $probeSetting

Configure with Azure PowerShell#

Azure PowerShell snippet
$probeSetting = New-AzFrontDoorHealthProbeSettingObject -Name '<probe_name>' -Path '<path>'
Set-AzFrontDoor -Name '<front_door>' -ResourceGroupName '<resource_group>' -HealthProbeSetting $probeSetting

Configure with Azure template#

To deploy a Front Door resource that passes this rule:

  • Configure the healthProbeSettings.probeRequestType on the OriginGroup

For example:

Azure Template snippet
  "resources": [
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Cdn/profiles",
      "apiVersion": "2021-06-01",
      "name": "[parameters('frontDoorName')]",
      "location": "Global",
      "sku": {
        "name": "Standard_AzureFrontDoor"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Cdn/profiles/afdEndpoints",
      "apiVersion": "2021-06-01",
      "name": "[format('{0}/{1}', parameters('frontDoorName'), variables('frontDoorEndpointName'))]",
      "location": "Global",
      "properties": {
        "enabledState": "Enabled"
      },
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Cdn/profiles', parameters('frontDoorName'))]"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Cdn/profiles/originGroups",
      "apiVersion": "2021-06-01",
      "name": "[format('{0}/{1}', parameters('frontDoorName'), variables('frontDoorDefaultOriginGroupName'))]",
      "properties": {
        "loadBalancingSettings": {
          "sampleSize": 4,
          "successfulSamplesRequired": 3
        },
        "healthProbeSettings": {
          "probePath": "/",
          "probeRequestType": "HEAD",
          "probeProtocol": "Http",
          "probeIntervalInSeconds": 100
        }
      },
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Cdn/profiles', parameters('frontDoorName'))]"
      ]
    }
  ]
  ```

### Configure with Bicep

To deploy a Front Door resource that passes this rule:

- Configure the healthProbeSettings.probeRequestType on the OriginGroup

For example:

```bicep title="Azure Bicep snippet"
resource frontDoorResource 'Microsoft.Cdn/profiles@2021-06-01' = {
  name: frontDoorName
  location: 'Global'
  sku: {
    name: 'Standard_AzureFrontDoor'
  }
}

resource frontDoorEndpoint 'Microsoft.Cdn/profiles/afdendpoints@2021-06-01' = {
  parent: frontDoorResource
  name: frontDoorEndpointName
  location: 'Global'
  properties: {
    enabledState: 'Enabled' 
  }
}

resource frontDoorOriginGroup 'Microsoft.Cdn/profiles/origingroups@2021-06-01' = {
  name: frontDoorDefaultOriginGroupName
  parent: frontDoorResource
  properties: {
    loadBalancingSettings: {
      sampleSize: 4
      successfulSamplesRequired: 3
    }
    healthProbeSettings: {
      probePath: '/'
      probeRequestType: 'HEAD'
      probeProtocol: 'Http'
      probeIntervalInSeconds: 100
    }
  }
}
Last update: 2022-10-17

Comments