diff --git a/heartbeat/azure-lb b/heartbeat/azure-lb
index 35d364be7..5ee767474 100755
--- a/heartbeat/azure-lb
+++ b/heartbeat/azure-lb
@@ -1,212 +1,218 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 #
 
 #  License:      GNU General Public License (GPL)
 #  (c) 2017 O. Albrigtsen
 #           and Linux-HA contributors
 #
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #      O C F    R E S O U R C E    S C R I P T   S P E C I F I C A T I O N
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
 # NAME
 #       azure-lb : OCF resource agent script for Azure Load Balancer
 #
 # Initialization:
 : ${OCF_FUNCTIONS_DIR=${OCF_ROOT}/lib/heartbeat}
 . ${OCF_FUNCTIONS_DIR}/ocf-shellfuncs
 
 # Defaults
 OCF_RESKEY_nc_default="/usr/bin/nc"
 OCF_RESKEY_port_default="61000"
 
 : ${OCF_RESKEY_nc=${OCF_RESKEY_nc_default}}
 : ${OCF_RESKEY_port=${OCF_RESKEY_port_default}}
 
 process="$OCF_RESOURCE_INSTANCE"
 pidfile="/var/run/$OCF_RESOURCE_INSTANCE.pid"
 
 
 lb_usage() {
 	cat <<END
     usage: $0 (start|stop|validate-all|meta-data|help|usage|monitor)
     $0 manages service that answers Azure Load Balancer health probe requests as a OCF HA resource.
     The 'start' operation starts the instance.
     The 'stop' operation stops the instance.
     The 'monitor' operation reports whether the instance seems to be working
     The 'validate-all' operation reports whether the parameters are valid
 END
 }
 
 lb_metadata() {
 cat <<END
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
 <!DOCTYPE resource-agent SYSTEM "ra-api-1.dtd">
 <resource-agent name="azure-lb">
 <version>1.0</version>
 <longdesc lang="en">
 Resource agent to answer Azure Load Balancer health probe requests
 </longdesc>
 <shortdesc lang="en">Answers Azure Load Balancer health probe requests</shortdesc>
 
 <parameters>
 
 <parameter name="nc">
 <longdesc lang="en">
-The full name of the nc binary.
+The full path of the used binary. This can be nc or socat path.
+The default is /usr/bin/nc.
+If you need /usr/bin/socat this parameter should be set.
 </longdesc>
-<shortdesc lang="en">Full path name of the nc binary</shortdesc>
+<shortdesc lang="en">Full path of the used binary (nc or socat are allowed)</shortdesc>
 <content type="string" default="${OCF_RESKEY_nc_default}"/>
 </parameter>
 
 <parameter name="port">
 <longdesc lang="en">
 Port to listen to.
 </longdesc>
 <shortdesc lang="en">Listen to port</shortdesc>
 <content type="string" default="${OCF_RESKEY_port_default}"/>
 </parameter>
 
 </parameters>
 
 <actions>
 <action name="start"   timeout="20s" />
 <action name="stop"    timeout="20s" />
 <action name="monitor" depth="0"  timeout="20s" interval="10s" />
 <action name="meta-data"  timeout="5s" />
 <action name="validate-all"  timeout="5s" />
 </actions>
 </resource-agent>
 END
 exit 0
 }
 
 getpid() {
         grep -o '[0-9]*' $1
 }
 
 lb_monitor() {
 	if test -f "$pidfile"; then
 		if pid=`getpid $pidfile` && [ "$pid" ] && kill -s 0 $pid; then
 			return $OCF_SUCCESS
 		else
 			# pidfile w/o process means the process died
 			return $OCF_ERR_GENERIC
 		fi
 	else
 		return $OCF_NOT_RUNNING
 	fi
 }
 
 lb_start() {
 	cmd="$OCF_RESKEY_nc -l -k $OCF_RESKEY_port"
+	if [ $( basename $OCF_RESKEY_nc ) = 'socat' ]; then
+		#socat has different parameters
+		cmd="$OCF_RESKEY_nc -U TCP-LISTEN:$OCF_RESKEY_port,backlog=10,fork,reuseaddr /dev/null"
+	fi
 	if ! lb_monitor; then
 		ocf_log debug "Starting $process: $cmd"
 		# Execute the command as created above
 		eval "$cmd & echo \$!" > $pidfile
 		if lb_monitor; then
 			ocf_log debug "$process: $cmd started successfully, calling monitor"
 			lb_monitor
 			return $?
 		else 
 			ocf_log err "$process: $cmd could not be started"
 			return $OCF_ERR_GENERIC
 		fi
 	else
 		# If already running, consider start successful
 		ocf_log debug "$process: $cmd is already running"
 		return $OCF_SUCCESS
 	fi
 }
 
 lb_stop() {
 	local rc=$OCF_SUCCESS
 
         if [ -n "$OCF_RESKEY_CRM_meta_timeout" ]; then
                 # Allow 2/3 of the action timeout for the orderly shutdown
                 # (The origin unit is ms, hence the conversion)
                 stop_timeout=$((OCF_RESKEY_CRM_meta_timeout/1500))
         else
                 stop_timeout=10
         fi
 
 	if lb_monitor; then
                 pid=`getpid $pidfile`
                 kill $pid
 
                 i=0
                 while [ $i -lt $stop_timeout ]; do
                         if ! lb_monitor; then
                         	rm -f $pidfile
                                 return $OCF_SUCCESS
                         fi
                         sleep 1 
                         i=$((i+1))
                 done
 
                 ocf_log warn "Stop with SIGTERM failed/timed out, now sending SIGKILL."
                 kill -s 9 $pid
                 while :; do
                         if ! lb_monitor; then
                                 ocf_log warn "SIGKILL did the job."
                                 rc=$OCF_SUCCESS
                                 break
                         fi
                         ocf_log info "The job still hasn't stopped yet. Waiting..."
                         sleep 1
                 done
 	fi
 	rm -f $pidfile 
 	return $rc
 }
 
 lb_validate() {
 	check_binary "$OCF_RESKEY_nc"
 
 	if ! ocf_is_decimal "$OCF_RESKEY_port"; then
 		ocf_exit_reason "$OCF_RESKEY_port is not a valid port"
 		exit $OCF_ERR_CONFIGURED
 	fi
 
 	return $OCF_SUCCESS
 }
 
 ###############################################################################
 #
 # MAIN
 #
 ###############################################################################
 
 case $__OCF_ACTION in
 	meta-data)
 		lb_metadata
 		exit $OCF_SUCCESS
 		;;
 	usage|help)
 		lb_usage
 		exit $OCF_SUCCESS
 		;;
 esac
 
 if ! ocf_is_root; then
 	ocf_log err "You must be root for $__OCF_ACTION operation."
 	exit $OCF_ERR_PERM
 fi
 
 case $__OCF_ACTION in
 	start)
 		lb_validate 
 		lb_start;;
 	stop)
 		lb_stop;;
 	monitor)
 		lb_monitor;;
 	validate-all)
 		lb_validate;;
 	*)	
 		echo $USAGE
 		exit $OCF_ERR_UNIMPLEMENTED
 		;;
 esac
 
 exit $?