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Enable availability zone support on Azure API Management instances

APPLIES TO: Premium

This how-to guide shows you how to enable and configure availability zones on an API Management instance.

For more detailed information about reliability features of API Management, such as availability zones and multi-region deployments, see Reliability in Azure API Management.

Important

Changes to your API Management service's infrastructure (such as configuring custom domains, adding CA certificates, scaling, virtual network configuration, availability zone changes, and region additions) can take 15 minutes or longer to complete, depending on the service tier and the size of the deployment. Expect longer times for an instance with a greater number of scale units or multi-region configuration. Rolling changes to API Management are executed carefully to preserve capacity and availability.

While the service is updating, other service infrastructure changes can't be made. However, you can configure APIs, products, policies, and user settings. The service will not experience gateway downtime, and API Management will continue to service API requests without interruption (except in the Developer tier).

Prerequisites

Default availability zone support

When you create a new API Management instance in the Premium tier in a region that supports availability zones, or you deploy API Management to an additional region, API Management offers two types of availability zone support:

Automatic. Azure API Management offers automatic availability zone support when you don't specify which availability zones to use.

Manual. Azure API Management offers manual availability zone support when you explicitly specify which availability zones to use.

Important

To ensure the reliability of your API Management instance, we recommend that you use the automatic availability zone support. To achieve maximum zone redundancy, we recommend that you deploy a minimum of three units in each region where you deploy your API Management instances. For details, see Reliability in API Management.

Manual availability zone support

While automatic availability zone configuration is recommended, you can manually configure or update availability zones for an existing ___location of your API Management instance. The following sections provide steps for manually configuring zone redundancy on an existing ___location of your API Management instance, depending on whether the instance is injected in a virtual network.

Note

You can optionally enable a zonal configuration, where the API Management instance or ___location is deployed in a single availability zone. Because it doesn't provide resiliency to an outage in that zone, this configuration generally isn't recommended except for specific scenarios. For more information, see Reliability in API Management.

Caution

If you manually configure availability zones on an API Management instance that's configured with autoscaling, you might need to adjust your autoscale settings after configuration. In this case, the number of API Management units in autoscale rules and limits must be a multiple of the number of zones. If you simply default to the automatic availability zone support, you don't need to adjust your autoscale settings.

Instance not injected in a virtual network

To manually configure availability zone support on an existing ___location of an API Management instance:

  1. Thoroughly understand all requirements and considerations for availability zones in API Management by reading Reliability in API Management.

  2. In the Azure portal, go to your API Management instance.

  3. On the Deployment + infrastructure menu, select Locations.

  4. In the Location box, select the ___location to be enabled. The ___location must support availability zones, as mentioned earlier in the prerequisites.

  5. In the Units box, select the number of scale units that you want in the ___location.

  6. In the Availability zones box, leave the Automatic setting (recommended), or optionally select one or more zones. If you select specific zones, the number of units that you selected must distribute evenly across the availability zones. For example, if you selected three units, you would select three zones so that each zone hosts one unit.

  7. Select Apply, and then select Save.

Screenshot that shows availability zone configuration for an existing ___location of API Management instance that's not injected in a virtual network.

Instance injected in a virtual network

To manually configure availability zone support on an existing ___location of an API Management instance that's injected in a virtual network:

  1. Thoroughly understand all requirements and considerations for enabling zone redundancy in API Management by reading Reliability in API Management.

  2. Create a public IP address in the ___location to enable availability zones. Detailed requirements are in the virtual networking guidance.

  3. In the Azure portal, go to your API Management instance.

  4. On the Deployment + infrastructure menu, select Locations.

  5. In the Location box, select the ___location to be enabled. The ___location must support availability zones, as mentioned earlier in the prerequisites.

  6. In the Units box, select the number of scale units that you want in the ___location.

  7. In the Availability zones box, leave the Automatic setting (recommended), or optionally select one or more zones. If you select specific zones, the number of units that you selected must distribute evenly across the availability zones. For example, if you selected three units, you would select three zones so that each zone hosts one unit.

  8. In the Public IP Address box, select a public IP address in the ___location.

  9. Select Apply, and then select Save.

Screenshot that shows availability zone configuration for an existing ___location of API Management instance that's injected in a virtual network.

New gateway ___location

To add a new ___location to your API Management instance and to configure availability zones in that ___location:

  1. Thoroughly understand all requirements and considerations for enabling availability zones in API Management by reading Reliability in API Management.

  2. If your API Management instance is deployed in a virtual network in the primary ___location, set up a virtual network, subnet, and optional public IP address in the new ___location where you plan to enable availability zones.

  3. In the Azure portal, go to your API Management instance.

  4. On the Deployment + infrastructure menu, select Locations.

  5. Select + Add to add a new ___location. The ___location must support availability zones, as mentioned earlier in the prerequisites.

  6. In the Units box, select the number of scale units that you want in the ___location.

  7. In the Availability zones box, leave the Automatic setting (recommended), or optionally select one or more zones. If you select specific zones, the number of units that you selected must distribute evenly across the availability zones. For example, if you selected three units, you would select three zones so that each zone hosts one unit.

  8. If your API Management instance is deployed in a virtual network, use the boxes under Network to select the virtual network, subnet, and public IP address that are available in the ___location.

  9. Select Add, and then select Save.

Screenshot that shows selections for adding a new ___location for an API Management instance with or without a virtual network.