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Cloud Load Balancing - Google Cloud

Introduction

Cloud Load Balancing is a fully distributed, software-defined managed service for all your traffic. It provides load balancing at a global scale with near-instantaneous response to changes in traffic. This tutorial will walk you through the basics of setting up and understanding Cloud Load Balancing on Google Cloud.

Types of Load Balancing

Google Cloud provides several types of load balancing:

  • HTTP(S) Load Balancing: Distributes HTTP and HTTPS traffic across multiple backend instances.
  • SSL Proxy Load Balancing: Distributes HTTPS traffic, terminating the SSL connections at the load balancer.
  • TCP Proxy Load Balancing: Distributes non-HTTPS TCP traffic.
  • UDP Load Balancing: Distributes UDP traffic across multiple backend instances.
  • Internal Load Balancing: Distributes traffic within a private network on Google Cloud.

Setting Up HTTP(S) Load Balancing

Let's go through the steps of setting up an HTTP(S) load balancer:

  1. Create a backend service.
  2. Set up a URL map to direct incoming requests to the appropriate backend services.
  3. Create an HTTP(S) proxy to route requests to your URL map.
  4. Reserve a global IP address to use with the load balancer.
  5. Create a target HTTP(S) proxy to route requests to the URL map.
  6. Set up forwarding rules to route incoming requests to the target HTTP(S) proxy.

Example: Creating a Backend Service

To create a backend service using the gcloud command-line tool, use the following command:

gcloud compute backend-services create my-backend-service --protocol HTTP --port-name http --health-checks my-health-check --global

This command creates a backend service named my-backend-service.

Example: Setting Up a URL Map

To create a URL map, use the following command:

gcloud compute url-maps create my-url-map --default-service my-backend-service

This command creates a URL map named my-url-map that routes all traffic to my-backend-service.

Example: Reserving a Global IP Address

To reserve a global IP address, use the following command:

gcloud compute addresses create my-global-ip --ip-version=IPV4 --global

This command reserves a global IPv4 address named my-global-ip.

Example: Creating a Forwarding Rule

To create a forwarding rule, use the following command:

gcloud compute forwarding-rules create my-forwarding-rule --address=my-global-ip --global --target-http-proxy=my-http-proxy --ports=80

This command creates a forwarding rule named my-forwarding-rule that uses the global IP address reserved earlier and forwards traffic to the HTTP proxy.

Monitoring and Logging

Google Cloud provides various tools to monitor and log the performance of your load balancers:

  • Stackdriver Monitoring: Provides metrics and dashboards to monitor the health and performance of your load balancers.
  • Stackdriver Logging: Captures logs for requests handled by your load balancers.

Conclusion

Cloud Load Balancing on Google Cloud is a powerful tool for distributing traffic across multiple backend instances. By following the steps in this tutorial, you can set up and manage HTTP(S) load balancers to ensure high availability and reliability for your applications.