My AWS Article Collection: Exploring a Multitude of Topics
- Let's Talk about IAM Users in AWS
- Exploring AWS EC2 Instances: Features, Deployment, and Hands-On Insights (c-sharpcorner.com)
- From Novie to Pro: Navigating AWS EC2 Instances Hands-On
- Launching & Configuring an EC2 Web Server on AWS
- Decoding IaaS vs Paas for Beginners
Elastic Load Balancers
In previous articles(above), we set up a few EC2 instances and deployed our application to them. However, imagine if you had not just two but multiple instances running your applications. You would want to distribute the incoming traffic efficiently among these instances. This is where Elastic Load Balancers come into play.
ELBs are essential for load distribution across multiple EC2 instances. Whether you have a few instances, ELB ensures that traffic is evenly spread across them. ELBs work across availability zones within the same region, so even if your instances are distributed, ELBs can manage them effectively.
This ELB falls under the Platform-as-a-Service category. AWS takes care of their availability, so we don't need to worry about reliability. You can configure ELBs a Public or Private.
Public ELBs' are accessible via the Internet, while Private ELBs are accessible to your AWS Network.
One of the ELB's standout features is its Health Check. You can specify a URL to check an instance or application status. This ELB will only route traffic to instances that pass this check, ensuring that your users are directed to healthy resources.
Types of Elastic Load Balancers
- Classic Load Balancer (Layer 4 and Layer 7): This is the oldest type, but it is not recommended for new applications. AWS prefers new options
- Application Load Balancer (Layer 7): This is the most popular choice, suitable for HTTP and HTTPS traffic. It excels in handling websites and supports advanced routing based on the request headers and URL's.
- Network Load Balancer (Layer 4): Designed for high-performance applications, it operates at the TCP level, mostly used in scenarios where speed and performance are critical.
Conclusion
Remember not to use the Classic Load Balancer. If you require high performance, like gaming, then go with Network Load Balancer. In most situations, Applications Load Balancer will meet our needs, especially if you are dealing with web applications, and HTTP/HTTPS traffic.
In our next article, we will delve into a practical demonstration of Elastic Load Balancer. Happy learning!