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Software Load Balancer NG

Description

Load balancers distribute incoming HTTP requests across multiple application servers. They therefore play a central role in building and operating high-performance system architectures. We have chosen the Nginx web server to implement software-based load balancing. NGINX is characterized by a highly resource-efficient implementation capable of handling thousands of connections within a single process, generating less CPU and RAM overhead. NGINX also proves to be very stable under high load. When combined with Apache2-based web applications, NGINX can be configured to serve static content—such as images, scripts, and CSS files—while forwarding requests for dynamically generated content to an application server, an Apache web server, or Tomcat. This setup is known as a reverse proxy. If multiple application servers are present, the load is distributed using the "least connections" method; this distributes requests evenly across all application servers based on the number of connections, regardless of the individual servers' current load. SSL connections are terminated at the software load balancer.

Goals of this service

  • Enable horizontal scaling of your setup by adding application servers

What you can expect from our service

  • Scalability
  • Content compression

Optional service features

  • Rate limiting
  • Sticky sessions
  • Image resizing
  • SSL connection
  • Performance tuning (caching, compression)
  • Fault tolerance after hardware failure

Service requests

  • Service restart
  • Clearing the cache
  • Configuring compression
  • Simple configuration changes
  • Scaling performance

Standard configurations

We offer two different standard solutions for software load balancing, which may differ in recovery time after a service outage. If these options do not meet your requirements, or if you would like assistance with the setup, please contact our consulting team to develop a solution tailored to your specific needs. Alternatively, we offer a hardware load balancer that provides advanced intelligent load distribution capabilities and can serve as the foundation of your DDoS protection strategy.

Single-Server Setup

This option is particularly suitable for development and testing environments, as it offers excellent value for money. It involves installing and operating a single software load balancer.

Anycast Setup

The load balancer acts as the central entry point for all incoming internet requests and often represents a potential single point of failure. While the Nginx solution used by us is highly stable, our Anycast option provides additional protection against service outages caused by hardware failure. In this setup, two load balancers are distributed across separate hardware nodes within a data center. Both load balancers operate in parallel, which also boosts your setup's potential performance. The availability of these hardware nodes is continuously monitored; if one node fails, requests are automatically routed to the load balancer on the remaining functional node, ensuring no customer requests are lost. Beyond handling unplanned outages, the Anycast setup offers another advantage: during hardware or software maintenance,our processes ensure that one of the two load balancers always remains available to process customer requests.

We offer an optional Premium SLA for this setup.

Our trending tool gives you access to Nginx-specific historical data—such as

  • Hits per second
  • Active connections
  • Idle and active PHP-FPM processes
  • PHP-FPM connections

allowing you to monitor and optimize load balancer usage.

Optional Features/Configurations

Please contact our consulting team for details. Alternatively, we recommend our hardware load balancer if factors such as high availability, DDoS protection, or a web application firewall are important to you.

Managed Cloud Instance Sizes

Upon request, we would be happy to provide a quote for larger or smaller managed cloud instances tailored to your performance requirements.

FAQ

Does the software load balancer support HTTP/2 (formerly SPDY)?

Yes, starting with Ubuntu 16.04.

Can I use Let's Encrypt certificates?

Yes. Your certificates will be renewed automatically.

Important Notes

  • We offer Nginx as a managed service. You can find further information and details about our managed services on our website.
  • For information on using NGINX+, please contact our “Software Load Balancer Enterprise” document.