Load Balancer

Load Balancer in Prophaze: Ensuring High Availability and Efficient Traffic Distribution

The Load Balancer in Prophaze WAF is a critical component designed to ensure seamless traffic distribution, high availability, and optimized performance for web applications and APIs. It efficiently manages incoming network traffic, balances the load across multiple endpoints, and ensures that applications remain responsive even during high traffic volumes or partial outages.

Key Functions of Prophaze Load Balancer:

1. Traffic Distribution:

• The load balancer evenly distributes incoming application traffic across multiple backend servers (endpoints) to prevent any single server from being overwhelmed.

• Supports different routing mechanisms, including round-robin routing, weighted routing, and IP-based routing.

1. High Availability:

• Ensures continuous availability of applications by automatically rerouting traffic to healthy servers if one endpoint becomes unresponsive.

• Helps minimize downtime during maintenance or unexpected server failures.

1. Sticky Sessions (Session Persistence):

• With Sticky Sessions enabled, the load balancer ensures that all requests from a specific client are routed to the same server for the duration of the session.

• This is essential for applications requiring consistent session management, such as e-commerce platforms and financial systems.

1. Weighted Routing:

• When Weighted Routing is enabled, the load balancer can distribute traffic unevenly across endpoints based on assigned weights.

• Each endpoint is given a weight (1-10), and servers with higher weights receive more traffic.

• Useful for scenarios where some servers have more capacity or better performance capabilities than others.

1. Endpoint Management:

• Endpoints are defined using IP addresses and port numbers, ensuring precise routing of traffic.

• The configuration supports dynamic addition or removal of endpoints without disrupting existing operations.

Configuration Parameters in Prophaze Load Balancer:

Once you navigate to the Settings page, select Load Balancer, and enter the required details as given below:

1. Load Balancer Name:

• Must contain only lowercase letters, numbers, dashes (-), and underscores (_).

• Serves as a unique identifier for the load balancer configuration.

1. Sticky Session:

• Enable or disable session persistence based on application requirements.

1. Weighted Routing:

• Enable weighted traffic distribution for fine-tuned control over endpoint utilization.

1. Endpoints:

• IP Address: A valid IPv4 or IPv6 address of the backend server.

• Port: A valid port number where the application is listening (e.g., 80 for HTTP or 443 for HTTPS).

• Weight: A numeric value between 1 and 10, representing traffic priority for each endpoint.

1. Add Endpoint:

• Easily add or remove backend servers without causing disruptions to active connections