Round robin is the most widely used and easily implemented balancing algorithm. After the load balancer sends a new session to all nodes in the cluster, it starts over with Node 1. Therefore, if the previous request went to Node 1, the next request goes to Node 2. The load balancer sends each new session to the next node in the cluster from the last request. Here are three popular load balancing algorithms. You should test the application before deploying to production, and ensure that the chosen algorithm works as expected in your environment. This means that once a new user session has started, each subsequent request in that session goes to the same node within the Data Center cluster.

Data Center applications don't require a specific type of balancing algorithm however, Data Center applications use sticky sessions, as explained below. Balancing algorithmsДЄ load balancer distributes traffic to a specific node in the cluster based on which algorithm you select or configure. For example, an Atlassian application can access the Atlassian MarketplaceВ through a forward proxy. Forward proxyДЄ forward proxy, or outbound proxy, allows a server on your internal network to access a public hosted server operating outside of your network. You will need to consult the product documentation to decide which configuration best fits your environment. You can also use different components for each function, such as using Nginx as a reverse proxy, and HAProxy as a load balancer. You can use a single component, such as Nginx, as both a load balancer and a reverse proxy. Reverse proxies also provide caching, which can potentially improve performance by automatically returning common or duplicate server responses. It accepts user requests, forwards those to your application servers for processing, and then returns the server response to the user. Reverse proxyДЄ reverse proxy is an intermediary server thatВ prevents direct non-internal network access toВ your backend servers.

Enables the ability to add and remove nodesДЇor information on using the load balancer in distributing traffic based on traffic type, see Traffic distribution with Atlassian Data Center.

Ensures high availability by sending traffic only to nodes that are online (requires health check monitoring).

Distributes traffic efficiently across multipleВ nodes.

The load balancer also returns the response from the selected server to the user.В For Data Center applications, the load balancer serves three essential functions: Load balancerДЄ load balancerВ distributes incoming user requests across your cluster to minimize response time and avoid overloading any single node. Since the distinction between load balancers and proxy servers can be confusing, here is a brief overview of the different technologies. This article explains some of your options when using a load balancer for a Data Center application.

Data Center does not include a load balancing solution, so you will need to select and configure one that best fits your environment.

Load balancing is a key component of a Data Center application that facilitates high availability and scalability of your application.

2022.03

Proxy vs reverse proxy vs load balancer