Introduction to Load Balancing
Load balancing is a technique that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple instances of a service, providing optimal resource utilization, maximum throughput, and response times. It also improves fault tolerance by distributing traffic among multiple instances of a service. This helps reduce the risk of a single point of failure if one of the services fails.
Introduction to AWS Elastic Load Balancer (ELB):
AWS Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) is a managed load balancing service that lets you distribute traffic across multiple AWS resources, such as Amazon EC2 instances, containers, IP addresses, and Lambda functions. ELB offers three types of load balancing; Application Load Balancers (ALB), Network Load Balancers (NLB), and Classic Load Balancers (CLB). ELB automatically scales with traffic and can be used to deploy and manage application traffic in multiple availability zones.
Features of AWS ELB:
High Availability: ELB helps improve availability by distributing incoming traffic across multiple targets.
Security: ELB can inspect request traffic and filter out malicious requests.
Automated Scaling: ELB is designed to automatically scale to match the demand of incoming traffic.
Health Checking: ELB constantly checks the health of targets to ensure that only healthy targets are handling requests.
Traffic Distribution: ELB can distribute traffic across multiple targets in multiple availability zones for increased resiliency.
Types of Load Balancers in AWS
AWS offers two types of load balancers; Application Load Balancer (ALB) and Network Load Balancer (NLB). ALB is a software-based load balancer designed to handle application requests at the application layer (Layer 7) of the OSI model, while NLB is a hardware-based load balancer designed to distribute network traffic across multiple instances and services at the transport layer (Layer 4).
Application Load Balancer:
ALB is best suited for application-levelload balancing and includes advanced features such as HTTP/2 support, TLS/SSL termination, path-based routing, and support for container-based applications. ALB works by directing incoming traffic to a “target group” that contains multiple EC2 instances or services, such as Lambda functions. It then routes requests to each instance or service based on specific rules set by the administrator. Best practices when using ALB include: using standard ports for external traffic, minimizing latency, setting up multiple target groups for better scalability, and using regional Availability Zones for added reliability.
Network Load Balancer:
NLB is best suited for high throughput and low latency power volume workloads. NLB is considered “stateless” meaning that all incoming requests are directed to one of the available instances based on the network traffic load. It is highly scalable and includes features such as support for multiple IP addresses, round-robin load balancing, and connection draining. Best practices when using NLB include: keeping connection rates as low as possible, using multiple Availability Zones for increased reliability, and setting up health checks to ensure service availability.
Setting up a Load Balancer in AWS
1. Create an AWS Load Balancer.
To create an AWS ELB (Elastic Load Balancer), Sign in to the AWS Management Console and click on “Services”, then select “EC2”. Once in the EC2 dashboard, select “Load Balancing” from the left side menu.
2. Choose a Load Balancer type
The next step is to select the type of load balancer you need. Select either “Application Load Balancer” or “Classic Load Balancer” depending on your requirements.
3. Configure the load balancer settings
The next step is to configure the load balancer settings. These include:
The name of the load balancer
The region in which the load balancer will be created.
The availability zone(s) where the load balancer will be hosted.
The load balancer protocol.
The port number to which the load balancer should listen.
The security groups associated with the load balancer.
The health check settings including the ping port, ping protocol, response timeout, and interval.
The access logs settings if necessary.
4. Add EC2 instances to the load balancer
Once the load balancer settings have been configured, the next step is to add the EC2 instances that will be behind the load balancer. You can select from the list of available EC2 instances or you can launch new instances and add them to the load balancer.
5. Create a listener
A listener refers to a load balancer port configuration that specifies how the load balancer should route traffic from a particular port on the load balancer to a particular port on the EC2 instances behind the load balancer. The listener configuration must include the port number, the protocol used, and the rules for routing the traffic.
6. Review and create the load balancer
Once the load balancer settings have been configured and the EC2 instances have been added, you can review the configuration and create the load balancer. Once the load balancer has been created, you can test the load balancer by making manual requests or by using traffic-generating tools.
Configuring HTTPS for Load Balancer
SSL/TLS encryption is essential for protecting web traffic and ensures that communication between web users and websites remain private and secure. SSL/TLS encrypts web traffic sent and received on the internet, meaning that website users’ sensitive data can not be viewed or tampered with by hackers. Securing a website with SSL/TLS encryption is a key security measure to protect user data and ensure that websites remain secure as a protected environment for web users.
Generating SSL/TLS certificates for your load balancer is an important part of securing web traffic. AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) is a service that provides SSL/TLS certificates which can be used to create secure HTTPS connections. With ACM, you can generate a free SSL/TLS certificate to use with your load balancer and configure certificates without the need of a server.
To configure HTTPS listeners on AWS load balancers, first configure an HTTPS listener, creating a secure listener in the same way as a non-secure listener and edit the configuration to accept traffic over HTTPS. Then set the port to 443, the protocol to “HTTPS”, and then set the “SSL Certificate” to the certificate you have created. Additionally, you can configure settings related to the “Security Policy” and “Client Authentication”.
When managing SSL/TLS certificates in AWS, there are a few best practices to consider. First, be sure to rotate your SSL certificates every 90 days. Also, use AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to handle the SSL/TLS certificates so that you are able to have an overview of all of your certificates in one place. Last, ensure you have configured your load balancer HTTPS listeners to be secure and that your certificate is properly configured with the private key, so that traffic is only allowed over HTTPS.By following these best practices, you can ensure that your encryption is secure and your web traffic is protected.
Certificate Management in AWS
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) is an AWS service that makes it easy to provision, manage, and deploy Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) certificates for use with AWS services. ACM automatically renews certificates and AWS provides them free of charge to manage the process on your behalf.
Benefits of ACM:
Easily provision, manage and deploy SSL/TLS certificates: ACM automates the process of hosting SSL/TLS certificates, making it easier and quicker to deploy them.
Free of cost: Certificates are provided free of charge, so you don’t have to worry about the cost of hosting them.
High levels of security: Security improvements are made to ACM to ensure high levels of security when provisioning and managing certificates.
Automated renewals: ACM can automatically renew certificates at no additional cost to the user.
How to Request and Manage SSL/TLS certificates using ACM:
Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the ACM console.
Click Request a Certificate.
Select one of the available certificate authorities (CAs) from the list.
Provide the domain names to be included in the certificate.
Provide information about administrative contact and domain ownership validation.
Select a validation method (email, DNS, or HTTP).
Review the information you entered and then click Confirm and Request. 8. Confirm the request and click Continue.
Click Review to view the status of your certificate request.
Once the request has been validated, you can deploy the certificate.
Load Balancer Routing and Target Groups
Routing policies determine how incoming requests are distributed across the instances registered with the load balancer. Some of the common routing policies used are ‘Round Robin’, ‘Least Outstanding Request’, and ‘Least Connection’.
Round Robin: This is the simplest form of routing where requests are distributed sequentially across all the registered instances. With Round Robin, the load balancer does not take any other factors into account; each request is passed to the next available instance in a cycle.
Least Outstanding Request: This routing policy takes into consideration the number of requests currently assigned to a given instance and routes the incoming requests to the instance that has the least pending requests. This helps ensure an even distribution of requests across all the instances.
Least Connection: This routing policy is based on the number of connections each instance has. It routes requests to the instance that currently has the least number of active connections. Like the Least Outstanding Request policy, this helps to evenly distribute requests and load among instances.
Target groups are collections of instances grouped together for the purpose of automatic registration with the load balancer. When a target group is configured, new instances are automatically registered when they are added to the target group. This allows for easy scaling of the load balancer to accommodate more traffic or additional instances.
Weighted routing is a method of distributing requests based on the amount of weight assigned to each instance. This allows the load balancer to route more requests to instances with more capacity.
Path-based routing is a method of routing requests based on the URL path of the incoming request. This allows for the load balancer to route requests to different instances based on the URL path of the request. Host-based routing is a method of routing requests based on the hostname provided in the request. This allows for the load balancer to route requests to different instances based on the hostname. This is useful for websites that serve multiple different domains from a single pool of instances.
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