Load Balancer Service

Create a load balancer within a network to distribute traffic to your virtual servers.

The load balancer service provides the following functions.

Creating a Load Balancer

Create a load balancer by configuring the following settings according to how you will use load distribution. When a load balancer is created, a unique FQDN will be assigned. Use this FQDN to ensure continuous operation that is unaffected by increases or decreases in the number of servers targeted for load distribution.

Tip: Access the load balancer using the notified FQDN. There is a possibility that the IP address may be changed.
Tip: If you register multiple subnets with different availability zones on the load balancer, the load will be distributed across the availability zones.
Table 1. Load Balancer (List of Items That Can Be Set)
Item Description Required
Load Balancer Name

Specify a name to identify the load balancer

Note: The name must be unique within the project.
 Yes
Load Balancer Type

Specify one of the following types, according to the purpose:

  • public: Load distribution of traffic from the Internet
  • internal: Load distribution within a private network only
Tip: When you create an internal load balancer, the FQDN is registered with the public DNS server (see Appendix), which is provided by one of the common network services. You do not need to manually register the FQDN with the DNS server.
 Yes
List of Load Distribution Condition Settings Specify load distribution conditions regarding what traffic to distribute. You can specify multiple conditions as a list.  
List of Security Groups Specify as a list the security group IDs that are set on the load balancer.  
List of Subnets

Specify the IDs of the subnets to which the virtual server targeted for load distribution is connected, as a list.

Important: To distribute the load of traffic from the Internet, the virtual router that the subnet is connected to must be connected to an external network.
Note: If the host_routes of the subnet has been changed, you must re-create the load balancer. The settings after changing will be reflected after the load balancer has been re-created.
 Yes
Grade

Specify one of the following levels of performance for the load balancer:

  • Standard: Standard performance (290 TPS*)
  • Middle: Intermediate performance (580 TPS*)
  • High: High performance (870 TPS*)

* Note: The processing performance during SSL communication (2048-bit key length) (The unit is TPS: Transactions Per Second). These performance values were measured in the Fujitsu evaluation environment. Performance varies depending on the operating environment and other factors. There is no guarantee for a certain level of performance.

Note:

Based on the grade of the load balancer performance, the following numbers of IP addresses are necessary for each subnet. Perform configuration so the necessary number of IP addresses can be secured.

  • Standard: 4
  • Middle: 8
  • High: 12
  

Operations on a Load Balancer

Deleting a Load Balancer

Specify and delete an existing load balancer.

Security

If you create a load balancer that can communicate via the Internet, the front end will be public on the Internet. To prevent attacks via the Internet, create the necessary security group and configure it on the load balancer in advance.

Limiting Values

Table 2. List of Limiting Values Related to the Load Balancer Service
Item Limiting Values
Load Balancer Name
  • Length: 1 - 30 characters
  • Available character type: Alphanumeric characters and hyphens (-)
Number of Load Balancers Created 20 per project
Maximum Number of Policies to be Created 100 per load balancer