# Idle Azure Load Balancers in Non-Production Environments

Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/idle-azure-lb-in-non-prod-env

[Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) 

# Idle Azure Load Balancers in Non-Production Environments

## Explanation

This inefficiency occurs when Azure Load Balancers remain provisioned after the backend workloads they supported have been scaled down, stopped, or decommissioned. This is common in non-production environments where virtual machines are shut down outside business hours, but the associated load balancers are left in place. Even when no meaningful traffic is flowing, the load balancer continues to incur base charges, resulting in ongoing cost without delivering value.

## Relevant Billing Model

Azure Load Balancer charges are driven by the provisioned load balancer and processed data, regardless of whether backend resources are actively serving traffic.

## Detection

- Identify load balancers associated with non-production or intermittent environments

- Review whether backend pools are empty or reference stopped resources

- Assess whether load balancers continue to exist despite applications being inactive or retired

## Remediation

- Remove load balancers that are no longer required after backend workloads are stopped or decommissioned
- Recreate load balancers on demand for temporary or non-production use cases
- Incorporate load balancer cleanup into environment shutdown and decommissioning processes

## Relevant Documentation

[Submit Feedback](https://hub.pointfive.co/inefficiencies/idle-azure-lb-in-non-prod-env)

## At a glance

Reference

CER-0292

Cloud provider

Azure

Service

Azure Load Balancer

Category

[Networking](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/service-category/networking)

Inefficiency type

Idle Resource

## Contributed by

- Taylor Houck 

### Taylor Houck

Cloud FinOps Specialist @ PointFive

[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/twhouck/)

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