E2E CloudLoad Balancer FAQ
Which regions can I create a load balancer in?
Section titled “Which regions can I create a load balancer in?”Delhi and Chennai. Each load balancer belongs to one region and one project. See Create an Application Load Balancer.
Should I choose an ALB or an NLB?
Section titled “Should I choose an ALB or an NLB?”An Application Load Balancer (ALB) for HTTP and HTTPS: it holds your SSL certificate, routes requests by path, host, and more, and can use a scale group. A Network Load Balancer (NLB) for any other TCP service, forwarded by port. You choose the type when you create the load balancer, and it stays that type. See Choose an ALB or an NLB.
Should I choose an external or an internal load balancer?
Section titled “Should I choose an external or an internal load balancer?”External, for users on the internet: it gets a public IP. Internal, for traffic from inside your VPCs: it has no public IP, and resources in its VPC reach it at its VPC address. See Choose external or internal.
How do I give the load balancer an address in my VPC?
Section titled “How do I give the load balancer an address in my VPC?”Attach the VPC on the load balancer’s Network tab, under Associated VPC, or pick it under VPC when you create the load balancer. The VPC address then shows in the list’s Private IP column and on the Network tab, and Private IP on the Info tab reads Not Assigned.
The first VPC you attach takes the place of the load balancer’s Private IP. Then change each Server IP to the server’s address in the VPC, and allow the server port from the load balancer’s VPC address in each server’s security group. See Attach a VPC.
How do I point my domain at the load balancer?
Section titled “How do I point my domain at the load balancer?”Add an A record for your domain at your DNS provider, with the load balancer’s Public IP as its value. An external load balancer gets its public IP when you create it. See Get started with Load Balancer.
Do I need a reserved IP for my domain?
Section titled “Do I need a reserved IP for my domain?”No. A load balancer keeps the same public IP when you power it off, start it, or upgrade its plan. Reserve the IP to keep the address after you delete the load balancer, or choose a reserved IP you already own when you create the load balancer. See Reserve the public IP.
Can a load balancer have more than one public IP?
Section titled “Can a load balancer have more than one public IP?”No. It has one public IPv4 address and takes no add-on IP. See Manage a load balancer’s network and security groups.
Can two load balancers share a Floating IP for failover?
Section titled “Can two load balancers share a Floating IP for failover?”No. A Floating IP attaches only to nodes. See Reserve the public IP.
What does Backend Connection Failure mean?
Section titled “What does Backend Connection Failure mean?”At least one server fails its checks, and the others keep serving. It can also show while every server passes, when MyAccount receives no health data for the load balancer. The load balancer shows Backend Connection Failure explains what it means and what to check.
What does the health check test?
Section titled “What does the health check test?”An ALB with Health Check ticked sends each server an HTTP HEAD request for /, with the host
name localhost, and a status in the 200s or 300s passes. Without Health Check, and on a
Network Load Balancer, it checks that it can connect to the server’s port. See
Choose the health check.
Can I change the health check path?
Section titled “Can I change the health check path?”No. On an ALB, the health check always requests / with the host name localhost. See
Choose the health check.
How do I turn the health check off to test?
Section titled “How do I turn the health check off to test?”On an ALB, edit the backend group on Backend Mapping, untick Health Check, click Submit, and then click Save and Deploy. The load balancer then checks only that it can connect to each server’s port. See The load balancer shows Backend Connection Failure.
Which routing policy should I choose?
Section titled “Which routing policy should I choose?”Source IP Hash when a user’s session lives on one server, Round Robin when any server can answer any request, and Least Connection for long-lived connections. See Choose a routing policy.
What happens when a backend server goes down?
Section titled “What happens when a backend server goes down?”The load balancer stops sending it traffic about six seconds after it starts failing its checks, and the other servers in the group take it. Under Source IP Hash, the down server’s clients move to the others. When no server passes, an Application Load Balancer answers 503 Service Unavailable, and a Network Load Balancer closes each connection without sending any data. A server that recovers gets traffic again about four seconds after it starts answering its checks again. See Choose a routing policy.
Can I set up primary and standby servers?
Section titled “Can I set up primary and standby servers?”No. Every server in a backend group takes traffic. See Choose a routing policy.
Does the load balancer support sticky sessions?
Section titled “Does the load balancer support sticky sessions?”Yes, through Source IP Hash, which keeps each client on one server by its IP address. The load balancer sets no session cookie, and clients behind one shared address all reach the same server. See Choose a routing policy.
How does my application see the client’s real IP address?
Section titled “How does my application see the client’s real IP address?”Read it from the X-Forwarded-For header. Over HTTP, an ALB passes the client’s IP address to
your application in that header, while the connection itself comes from the load balancer. See
Requests your servers receive (ALB).
How do I run several sites or applications behind one load balancer?
Section titled “How do I run several sites or applications behind one load balancer?”Put each application’s servers in its own backend group on an ALB, and add an ACL rule for each: by path, host name, query parameter, HTTP method, or client IP. Requests that match no rule go to the first backend group. See Route requests with ACL rules.
Does path routing work on an internal load balancer?
Section titled “Does path routing work on an internal load balancer?”Yes, on an ALB. ACL rules work the same on internal and external load balancers, for HTTP and HTTPS requests alike. See Route requests with ACL rules.
What can an ACL rule’s name contain?
Section titled “What can an ACL rule’s name contain?”Letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens, up to 32 characters, and each rule on the load balancer needs its own name. See Add a rule.
Why does all my traffic go to one backend group?
Section titled “Why does all my traffic go to one backend group?”Because an ALB sends requests to the first backend group unless an ACL rule sends them to another. To spread traffic across all your servers, put them in one group. See All traffic goes to one group or one server.
Can I edit a backend group in place?
Section titled “Can I edit a backend group in place?”Yes. Edit the group’s row on Backend Mapping, click Submit, and then click Save and Deploy. See Add or change servers.
Can a node and a scale group share a backend group?
Section titled “Can a node and a scale group share a backend group?”No. On an ALB, a backend group takes either a list of servers or one scale group. Put them in separate groups, and use ACL rules to send requests to the second one. See Use a scale group (ALB).
Which files do I need to add my certificate?
Section titled “Which files do I need to add my certificate?”Three: the certificate, its private key, and the certificate chain. Import all three in SSL Certificates. Then, on an ALB, set Frontend Protocol to HTTPS or Both (HTTP and HTTPS) and choose the certificate under SSL. See Add an SSL certificate.
Can a load balancer hold several SSL certificates?
Section titled “Can a load balancer hold several SSL certificates?”No. An ALB holds one certificate. For several domains, use one wildcard or multi-domain certificate that covers them all. See Add an SSL certificate.
Why is the certificate I bought from E2E missing from the SSL list?
Section titled “Why is the certificate I bought from E2E missing from the SSL list?”The list shows only imported certificates. Import the certificate with its private key and the certificate chain, and it appears. See Import the certificate.
Can I use one certificate in Delhi and in Chennai?
Section titled “Can I use one certificate in Delhi and in Chennai?”Yes. An imported certificate belongs to the project rather than to a region, so load balancers in both regions can choose it under SSL. See Import the certificate.
How do I renew the certificate?
Section titled “How do I renew the certificate?”Import the renewed certificate, then choose it under SSL on the ALB’s Info tab and save. See Renew or replace the certificate.
How do I redirect HTTP to HTTPS?
Section titled “How do I redirect HTTP to HTTPS?”With an ALB, set Frontend Protocol to Both (HTTP and HTTPS), and tick HTTP Redirect, on the Details step when you create the load balancer or in the edit form on its Info tab. See Add an SSL certificate: Redirect HTTP to HTTPS.
Can one path stay on HTTP while the rest is redirected?
Section titled “Can one path stay on HTTP while the rest is redirected?”No. The redirect applies to every request on port 80, whatever the path, and ACL rules do not change it. See Add an SSL certificate: Redirect HTTP to HTTPS.
Can traffic stay encrypted from the load balancer to my servers?
Section titled “Can traffic stay encrypted from the load balancer to my servers?”Yes, on an ALB. Set the backend group’s Backend Protocol to HTTPS, and the load balancer connects to your servers over HTTPS. See Choose the backend protocol (ALB).
Does the load balancer support HTTP/2?
Section titled “Does the load balancer support HTTP/2?”Yes, over HTTPS on an ALB, along with HTTP/1.1. See Add an SSL certificate.
On an NLB, what is the difference between LB Listening Port and Server Port?
Section titled “On an NLB, what is the difference between LB Listening Port and Server Port?”LB Listening Port is the port clients connect to on the load balancer. Server Port is the port your service listens on in each server. They can differ. Some call these the target port and the backend port. See Set up a backend group for each port.
Which ports can an NLB listen on?
Section titled “Which ports can an NLB listen on?”443, and 1024 to 65535, apart from 8080, 10050, and 9101. Each backend group listens on its own port. Port 80 is also accepted, but keep NLB groups off it: about half of the connections to a group there get 503 Service Unavailable. See Create a Network Load Balancer.
Can one NLB serve several ports?
Section titled “Can one NLB serve several ports?”Yes. Add a backend group for each port, each with its own LB Listening Port and at least one server. See Add a backend group.
Does an NLB decrypt TLS?
Section titled “Does an NLB decrypt TLS?”No. A Network Load Balancer forwards encrypted traffic unchanged, and your servers handle the certificate. For HTTPS handled on the load balancer, use an Application Load Balancer. See Add an SSL certificate.
Can an NLB forward UDP?
Section titled “Can an NLB forward UDP?”No. A Network Load Balancer forwards TCP only. See Create a Network Load Balancer.
Can I sign in to the load balancer?
Section titled “Can I sign in to the load balancer?”No. You set up the load balancer from MyAccount or the API. See Load Balancer.
Can I ping the load balancer?
Section titled “Can I ping the load balancer?”No. To check that the load balancer is reachable, connect to one of its listening ports instead,
for example curl -I http://<load-balancer-ip>/. See
The load balancer does not answer ping.
Which security group rules does the load balancer need?
Section titled “Which security group rules does the load balancer need?”Two sets. The load balancer’s security group must allow its listening ports from your users. Each server’s security group must allow the server port from the load balancer’s private IP, or from its VPC address once it is in a VPC. See Manage a load balancer’s network and security groups.
Where are the request logs?
Section titled “Where are the request logs?”In your E2E Object Storage bucket, once you turn on access logs. The Action Logs tab lists actions taken on the load balancer, not requests. See Save access logs to a bucket.
Can I collect the load balancer’s metrics in my own Prometheus?
Section titled “Can I collect the load balancer’s metrics in my own Prometheus?”No. You read the load balancer’s metrics in MyAccount, on the Stats and Prometheus Stats tabs. See Read the live statistics.
How do I use BitNinja on a load balancer?
Section titled “How do I use BitNinja on a load balancer?”Tick Bitninja when you create the load balancer, or click Buy beside Bitninja on its Info tab. Ticking it also sets up a BitNinja account under your email; the load balancer is created once that account is ready. Each load balancer has its own licence, billed while it is active. See Turn BitNinja on or off.
Is a Kubernetes Service of type LoadBalancer the same thing?
Section titled “Is a Kubernetes Service of type LoadBalancer the same thing?”No. A Kubernetes Service of type LoadBalancer takes an IP from the cluster’s LB IP Pool, and nothing appears on the Load Balancers page. The node list in Add Server leaves Kubernetes nodes out. See Expose a service with a load balancer.
Can I change the type or turn on encryption later?
Section titled “Can I change the type or turn on encryption later?”No. The type and the encryption setting are chosen when you create the load balancer. To change one, create a new load balancer. See Create an Application Load Balancer.
Which timeouts can I set?
Section titled “Which timeouts can I set?”Connection Timeout, Client Timeout, and Server Timeout, each from 60 to 10000 seconds. An ALB also has HTTP Keep Alive Timeout, with the same range, and a Web Socket Timeout of 1 to 100 hours for each backend group. See Change the timeouts.
How do I choose a plan size?
Section titled “How do I choose a plan size?”Compare the plans in the plan table, which lists each plan’s vCPU, RAM, Max Concurrent Connections, and price. The four plans run from E2E-LB-2, with 4 vCPU and 6 GB RAM, to E2E-LB-5, with 24 vCPU and 48 GB RAM. On hourly billing, you can move to a larger plan later. See Choose the plan.
Can I move a load balancer to a bigger plan?
Section titled “Can I move a load balancer to a bigger plan?”Yes, on hourly billing. Power off the load balancer first. See Upgrade the plan.
What does a load balancer cost?
Section titled “What does a load balancer cost?”It is billed by its plan, by the minute, from when you create it until you delete it. On a committed plan, it is billed for a fixed period of 90, 183, or 365 days instead. For current prices, see E2E’s pricing page.
Is a committed load balancer refunded if I delete it early?
Section titled “Is a committed load balancer refunded if I delete it early?”No. The full price for the committed period is charged when you commit, and it stays charged if you delete the load balancer before the period ends. See Use committed billing for a load balancer.
Am I billed while a load balancer is powered off?
Section titled “Am I billed while a load balancer is powered off?”Yes. The charges continue while it is powered off, until you delete it. See Delete a load balancer.
Why am I still charged after deleting a load balancer?
Section titled “Why am I still charged after deleting a load balancer?”A public IP you reserved when you deleted it is billed until you release it on the Reserved IP page. The load balancer itself reads Deleting until it is gone. See A deleted load balancer is still listed or still billed.