New SDN Software Load Balancer (SLB) and Gateway deployment wizards for Azure Stack HCI

Late last year, we introduced a standalone wizard to deploy SDN Network Controller (NC) in Windows Admin Center (WAC). This wizard enabled users to deploy Network Controller at a later point after creating their HCI cluster. Read more about this announcement here: New SDN deployment wizard for Azure Stack HCI - Microsoft Tech Community

This experience had some limitations, it did not provide a way to deploy additional SDN services like Software Load Balancing (SLB) and SDN gateways through Windows Admin Center. You had to use the SDNExpress scripts to deploy SLB and Gateways after deploying NC through WAC or run a full SDN deployment using just the scripts. With SLB, you will be able to configure load balancing and Network Address Translation (NAT) rules for virtual and traditional VLAN networks; load balancing will provide high availability and scale for your applications, and NAT will provide inbound and outbound internet access for your applications. With Gateways, you will be able to connect your virtual networks to external networks through IPSEC, GRE, and L3 gateway connections.

Today, we announce new wizards in WAC for deploying SLB and Gateways. With this update, you can now deploy your entire SDN infrastructure through Windows Admin Center. To get this update, you must install the latest “SDN Infrastructure” Windows Admin Center extension (version 1.32.0).

Take a look at the deployment wizards in action below…

SLB deployment in Windows Admin Center

Gateway deployment in Windows Admin Center

To summarize, we are introducing new SLB and Gateway deployment wizards in the SDN infrastructure extension in WAC. As you can see in the demo above, this experience is streamlined and simple. Most of the parameters in the wizards are already prepopulated for you. By providing just a few basic parameters, you will be all done in just 2-4 clicks!