The Complete User Guide to Load Balancers

Prerequisites

Client

To use the load balancers service, you must first instantiate a Rackspace client object.

use OpenCloud\Rackspace;

$client = new Rackspace(Rackspace::US_IDENTITY_ENDPOINT, array(
    'username' => '<YOUR RACKSPACE CLOUD ACCOUNT USERNAME'>,
    'apiKey'   => '<YOUR RACKSPACE CLOUD ACCOUNT API KEY>'
));

Load Balancer Service

All operations on load balancers are done via a load balancer service object.

$loadBalancerService = $client->loadBalancerService('cloudLoadBalancers', 'DFW');

Cloud Servers

Many of the examples in this document use two cloud servers as nodes for the load balancer. The variables $serverOne and $serverTwo refer to these two cloud servers.

Load Balancers

A load balancer is a device that distributes incoming network traffic amongst multiple back-end systems. These back-end systems are called the nodes of the load balancer.

Create Load Balancer

$loadBalancer = $loadBalancerService->loadBalancer();

$serverOneNode = $loadBalancer->node();
$serverOneNode->address = $serverOne->addresses->private[0]->addr;
$serverOneNode->port = 8080;
$serverOneNode->condition = 'ENABLED';

$serverTwoNode = $loadBalancer->node();
$serverTwoNode->address = $serverTwo->addresses->private[0]->addr;
$serverTwoNode->port = 8080;
$serverTwoNode->condition = 'ENABLED';

$loadBalancer->addVirtualIp('PUBLIC');
$loadBalancer->create(array(
    'name'     => 'My smart load balancer',
    'port'     => 80,
    'protocol' => 'HTTP',
    'nodes'    => array($serverOneNode, $serverTwoNode)
));

List Load Balancer Details

You can retrieve a single load balancer's details by using its ID.

$loadBalancer = $loadBalancerService->loadBalancer('254889');

/** @var $loadBalancer OpenCloud\LoadBalancer\Resource\LoadBalancer **/

List Load Balancers

You can retrieve a list of all your load balancers. An instance of OpenCloud\Common\Collection\PaginatedIterator is returned.

$loadBalancers = $loadBalancerService->loadBalancerList();
foreach ($loadBalancers as $loadBalancer) {
    /** @var $loadBalancer OpenCloud\LoadBalancer\Resource\LoadBalancer **/
}

Update Load Balancer Attributes

You can update one or more of the following load balancer attributes:

• name: The name of the load balancer
• algorithm: The algorithm used by the load balancer to distribute traffic amongst its nodes. See also: Load balancing algorithms.
• protocol: The network protocol used by traffic coming in to the load balancer. See also: Protocols.
• port: The network port on which the load balancer listens for incoming traffic.
• halfClosed: Enable or Disable Half-Closed support for the load balancer.
• timeout: The timeout value for the load balancer to communicate with its nodes.
• httpsRedirect: Enable or disable HTTP to HTTPS redirection for the load balancer. When enabled, any HTTP request will return status code 301 (Moved Permanently), and the requestor will be redirected to the requested URL via the HTTPS protocol on port 443. For example, http://example.com/page.html would be redirected to https:// example.com/page.html. Only available for HTTPS protocol (port = 443), or HTTP Protocol with a properly configured SSL Termination (`secureTrafficOnly=true, securePort=443). See also: SSL Termination.

Updating a single attribute of a load balancer

$loadBalancer->update(array(
    'name' => 'New name'
));

Updating multiple attributes of a load balancer

$loadBalancer->update(array(
    'name'      => 'New name',
    'algorithm' => 'ROUND_ROBIN'
));

Remove Load Balancer

When you no longer have a need for the load balancer, you can remove it.

$loadBalancer->delete(); 

Nodes

A node is a backend device that provides a service on specified IP and port. An example of a load balancer node might be a web server serving HTTP traffic on port 8080.

A load balancer typically has multiple nodes attached to it so it can distribute incoming network traffic amongst them.

List Nodes

You can list the nodes attached to a load balancer. An instance of OpenCloud\Common\Collection\PaginatedIterator is returned.

$nodes = $loadBalancer->listNodes();
foreach ($nodes as $node) {
    /** @var $node OpenCloud\LoadBalancer\Resource\Node **/
}

Add Nodes

You can attach additional nodes to a load balancer. Assume $loadBalancer already has two nodes attached to it - $serverOne and $serverTwo - and you want to attach a third node to it, say $serverThree, which provides a service on port 8080.

Important: Remember to call $loadBalancer->addNodes() after all the calls to $loadBalancer->addNode() as shown below.

$address = $serverThree->addresses->private[0]->addr;
$loadBalancer->addNode($address, 8080);
$loadBalancer->addNodes();

The addNode method accepts three more optional parameters, in addition to the two shown above:

Modify Nodes

You can modify one or more of the following node attributes:

• condition: The condition of the load balancer:
  • ENABLED – Node is ready to receive traffic from the load balancer.
  • DISABLED – Node should not receive traffic from the load balancer.
  • DRAINING – Node should process any traffic it is already receiving but should not receive any further traffic from the load balancer.
• type: The type of the node:
  • PRIMARY – Nodes defined as PRIMARY are in the normal rotation to receive traffic from the load balancer.
  • SECONDARY – Nodes defined as SECONDARY are only in the rotation to receive traffic from the load balancer when all the primary nodes fail.
• weight: The weight, between 1 and 100, given to node when distributing traffic using either the WEIGHTED_ROUND_ROBIN or the WEIGHTED_LEAST_CONNECTIONS load balancing algorithm.

Modifying a single attribute of a node

$node->update(array(
    'condition' => 'DISABLED'
));

Modifying multiple attributes of a node

$node->update(array(
    'condition' => 'DISABLED',
    'type'      => 'SECONDARY'
));

Remove Nodes

There are two ways to remove a node.

Given an OpenCloud\LoadBalancer\Resource\Node instance

$node->delete();

Given an OpenCloud\LoadBalancer\Resource\LoadBalancer instance and a node ID

$loadBalancer->removeNode(490639);

The removeNode method, as shown above, accepts the following arguments:

View Node Service Events

You can view events associated with the activity between a node and a load balancer. An instance of OpenCloud\Common\Collection\PaginatedIterator is returned.

$nodeEvents = $loadBalancer->nodeEventList();
foreach ($nodeEvents as $nodeEvent) {
    /** @var $nodeEvent OpenCloud\LoadBalancer\Resource\NodeEvent **/
}

Virtual IPs

A virtual IP (VIP) makes a load balancer accessible by clients. The load balancing service supports either a public VIP address (PUBLIC), routable on the public Internet, or a ServiceNet VIP address (SERVICENET), routable only within the region in which the load balancer resides.

List Virtual IPs

You can list the VIPs associated with a load balancer. An instance of OpenCloud\Common\Collection\PaginatedIterator is returned.

$vips = $loadBalancer->virtualIpList();
foreach ($vips as $vip) {
    /** @var $vip of OpenCloud\LoadBalancer\Resource\VirtualIp **/
}

Add Virtual IPv6

You can add additional IPv6 VIPs to a load balancer.

$loadBalancer->addVirtualIp('PUBLIC', 6);

The addVirtualIp method, as shown above, accepts the following arguments:

Remove Virtual IPs

You can remove a VIP from a load balancer.

$vip->remove();

Please note that a load balancer must have at least one VIP associated with it. If you try to remove a load balancer's last VIP, a ClientErrorResponseException will be thrown.

Algorithms

Load balancers use an algorithm to determine how incoming traffic is distributed amongst the back-end nodes.

List Load Balancing Algorithms

You can list all supported load balancing algorithms using a load balancer service object. An instance of OpenCloud\Common\Collection\PaginatedIterator is returned.

$algorithms = $loadBalancerService->algorithmList();
foreach ($algorithms as $algorithm) {
    /** @var $algorithm OpenCloud\LoadBalancer\Resource\Algorithm **/
}

Protocols

When a load balancer is created a network protocol must be specified. This network protocol should be based on the network protocol of the back-end service being load balanced.

List Load Balancing Protocols

You can list all supported network protocols using a load balancer service object. An instance of OpenCloud\Common\Collection\PaginatedIterator is returned.

$protocols = $loadBalancerService->protocolList();
foreach ($protocols as $protocol) {
    /** @var $protocol OpenCloud\LoadBalancer\Resource\Protocol **/
}

Sessions

Manage Session Persistence

Connections

Error Page

Allowed Domains

Access Lists

Content Caching

SSL Termination

Metadata

Monitors

Statistics

Usage Reports