Load balancing

Overview of load balancing in HAProxy ALOHA

HAProxy ALOHA provides two load balancing options:

  • The LB Layer7 tab embeds the HAProxy Enterprise load balancer.
  • The LB Layer4 tab embeds the IPVS component of the Linux Virtual Server (LVS) project.

HAProxy Enterprise load balancer Jump to heading

Use the HAProxy Enterprise load balancer for TCP traffic at layer 4 or HTTP traffic at layer 7. This load balancer is a reverse proxy. It terminates the client’s connection on one end, then opens a connection to the server on the other end. For details, see Layer 7 (HAProxy).

LVS load balancer Jump to heading

The LVS layer 4 load balancer routes TCP or UDP traffic to the backend servers. It supports DSR (Direct Server Return), destination NAT, and IPIP tunnels. For details, see Layer 4 (LVS).

Use cases Jump to heading

Use Case LVS (LB Layer4) HAProxy Enterprise (LB Layer7)
Big volume of response data (any protocol) Yes (DSR or IPIP) No
Does not require any change on the server side (any TCP-based protocol) No Yes
FTP (active) Yes No
FTP (passive) No Yes
HTTP application with advanced L7 features No Yes
HTTP application without any L7 requirements Yes Yes
SSL offloading / re-encryption (any TCP-based protocol) No Yes
Syslog TCP or UDP Yes Yes
UDP Yes No

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