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Getting started with Load Balancer on Public Cloud

Stephanie R.
Updated

Learn how to configure an OVHcloud Load Balancer with the help of this guide.

Our Public Cloud Load Balancer is based on OpenStack Octavia and is fully integrated into the Public Cloud universe.

NOTE: Load Balancer creation will fail if you have multiple listeners.

 

Requirements

 

Instructions

Creating the Load Balancer

Click a tab to choose a method, OVHcloud Control Panel or OpenStack CLI.

From the OVHcloud Control Panel, navigate to the Load Balancer section via the Public Cloud menu.

Click Create your Load Balancer (or + Add a Load Balancer if you already have a Load Balancer service).

PCLB_onboarding.png

 

Step 1: Location

Only regions on which you have a private network and at least one subnet can be selected. Select the deployment mode and region, then click Next.

PCLB_order_location.png

 

Step 2: Choose the size

The interface contains a link to the website on which the characteristics/benchmarks of all sizes are provided. Once you have chosen your size, click Next.

PCLB_order_size.png

 

Step 3: Attach a public IP (or not)

At this stage, you need to know if your Load Balancer will be receiving public traffic or not (for more details, read our Public Cloud Networking concepts page).

If your Load Balancer is processing public traffic, you have two options:

  • New Public IP: this option will create a new Floating IP for your Load Balancer.
  • If you already have a Floating IP, the interface will offer you to pick one.

If your Load Balancer is processing private traffic, choose No Public IP.

When you have made your selection, click Next.

PCLB_order_publicIP.png

 

Step 4: Select a private network

The interface will inform you if the private network/subnet is not compliant with the prerequisites (see Public Cloud Networking concepts).

PCLB_order_privateNetwork.png

 

Step 5 (optional): Define the listener(s) and the members

First, choose the listener protocol & the port according to the traffic you will receive. Note that a specific listener called Prometheus is available to monitor your Load Balancer. In that case, it is not possible to add members. For more information on this listener, read this page.

Then, choose the Health Monitor type. Note that since some health monitor types are not compatible with some protocols, the user interface filters those types so that you can only choose compatible items. For more information on the health monitor compatibility, read this page.

Finally, from the instances of your region, choose the member IP & port that will be part of the pool. Note that to simplify the configuration workflow, it is only possible to have a pool with the same protocol as the listener, and that the member can only be chosen from the instance. Those limitations can be bypassed by skipping this part of the configuration and using the pool/member configuration once the Load Balancer is created.

PCLB_order_addInstances.png

 

Step 6: Load Balancer name

You can update the name according to your choice and click on Create a Load Balancer.

PCLB_order_name.png

You will be redirected to the Load Balancer listing page. Among the attributes that are displayed, the Operating status and Provisioning status provide information on the state of your load balancer. Find more information on the Load Balancer concepts page.

Configuring your private network

Before creating a Load Balancer, you will need to set up a private network:

openstack network create my_network
openstack subnet create my_subnet --subnet-range <my_private_ip_range/mask> --network my_network --no-dhcp
openstack router create my_router
openstack router add subnet my_router my_subnet
openstack router set --external-gateway Ext-Net my_router

You can now attach your instances to the new network. We recommend following our guide to integrate an instance into vRack. List the addresses of your instances in your network with the following command:

openstack server list

In the next step, configure the network interfaces of your instances according to this output.

 

Creating the Load Balancer

You can view a list of the different Load Balancer flavors we offer with this command:

openstack loadbalancer flavor list

To find your subnet ID, use the following command:

openstack network list

You can now create your Load Balancer with the following command. In this example, we will create a "Small" Load Balancer.

openstack loadbalancer create --name my_load_balancer --flavor small --vip-subnet-id my_subnet

Your Load Balancer will be configured with an IP address of the private network. If you want to have access from the internet, you will need to attach a Floating IP address.

 

Attaching a Floating IP address to a Load Balancer

This is how to attach a Floating IP address to a Load Balancer:

openstack floating ip create Ext-Net

openstack floating ip set --port <my_load_balancer_vip_port_id> <floating_ip>

To retrieve the VIP port ID of your Load Balancer, use openstack loadbalancer show my_load_balancer.

 

Configuring your Load Balancer

In this example, we will configure an HTTP Load Balancer. To listen on port 80 of the Load Balancer, create a Listener with this command:

openstack loadbalancer listener create --name my_listener_http --protocol HTTP --protocol-port 80 my_loadbalancer

Once the Listener has been created, you need to add each instance that can respond to external requests. To do this, you must create an Instance Pool:

openstack loadbalancer pool create --name my_pool_http --lb-algorithm ROUND_ROBIN --listener my_listener --protocol HTTP

Add your instances to the Instance Pool:

openstack loadbalancer member create --subnet-id my_subnet --address <private_ip_instance_1> --protocol-port 80 my_pool
openstack loadbalancer member create --subnet-id my_subnet --address <private_ip_instance_2> --protocol-port 80 my_pool

You can now access your Load Balancer via the Floating IP or private IP address from an instance in your private network.

 

Public IP

Currently, the Load Balancer details page in the OVHcloud Control Panel doesn't mention the Floating IP associated to a Load Balancer. Instructions for finding this information are in this guide.

 

View or add a health monitor

From the OVHcloud Control Panel, navigate to your Load Balancer via the Load Balancer and Public Cloud menus.

Select your Load Balancer's name.

PCLB_serviceList.png

On the following screen, choose the Pools tab and select your Pool's Name.

PCLB_poolsTab.png

On the following screen, select the Health monitor tab. From here you can edit or delete an existing health monitor. For more information about Health monitor, please see our Concepts - Load Balancer guide.

PCLB_healthMonitorTab.png

 

Access L7 policies

From the OVHcloud Control Panel, navigate to your Load Balancer via the Load Balancer and Public Cloud menus.

Select your Load Balancer's name.

NOTE: You can cancel a Load Balancer by clicking the more options ... button and selecting Delete.

PCLB_serviceList.png

On the following screen, choose the Listeners tab. To the right of your listener, click the more options ... button and select View L7 policies.

PCLB_listenersTab_moreOptions.png

On the following you can view, edit, delete, or create L7 policies. For more information about L7 policies, please see our Concepts - Load Balancer.

 

Go further

For further information about OpenStack Octavia, please see the official documentation of OpenStack Octavia or the Cookbook OpenStack Octavia resource.

For more information and tutorials, please see our other Public Cloud Networking support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.

If you need training or technical assistance to implement our solutions, contact your sales representative or click on this link to get a quote and ask our Professional Services experts for a custom analysis of your project.

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