{"id":2563,"date":"2018-08-01T23:59:39","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T05:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/?p=2563"},"modified":"2026-03-19T06:28:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:28:34","slug":"aws-load-balancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/aws-load-balancer\/","title":{"rendered":"AWS Load Balancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"2563\" class=\"elementor elementor-2563\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"penci-section penci-disSticky penci-structure-10 elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-66bf7816 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"66bf7816\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"penci-ercol-100 penci-ercol-order-1 penci-sticky-ct    elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-582e74de\" data-id=\"582e74de\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-19cd0b99 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"19cd0b99\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><\/p>\n<p>A load balancer distributes incoming traffic toward multiple EC2 instances across different Availability Zones, increasing application fault tolerance. It detects unhealthy instances and routes traffic only to healthy targets.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>It automatically adjusts capacity as application traffic fluctuates, scaling to handle the vast majority of workloads without manual intervention.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>There are three types of load balancers supported:<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1)Application Load Balancers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2) Network Load Balancers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3) Classic Load Balancers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can select a load balancer based on the application needs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Application Load Balancer<\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An Application Load Balancer routes the traffic at the application layer (HTTP\/HTTPS), it mainly supports path-based routing. And it routes requests to one or more ports on each container instance in the cluster. Application Load Balancers support dynamic host port mapping. This dynamic mapping allows you to have multiple tasks from a single service on the same container instance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"wp-block-image\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a class=\"lightbox\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/load-balancer.png\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" ><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"310\" height=\"262\" src=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/load-balancer.png\" alt=\"Application Load Balancer - SupportPro\" class=\"wp-image-2564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/load-balancer.png 310w, https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/load-balancer-300x254.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Application Load Balancers have several features that make them attractive for use with Amazon ECS services.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><p><\/p>\n<li>Application Load Balancers allow containers to use dynamic host port<br>mapping<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Application Load Balancers support path-based routing and priority rules<\/li>\n<p><\/p><\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>We recommend that you use Application Load Balancers for your Amazon ECS services so that you can take advantage of these latest features unless your service requires a feature that is only available with Network Load Balancers or Classic Load Balancers.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Network Load Balancer<\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Network Load Balancer routes the traffic at the transport layer (TCP\/SSL). It can manage millions of requests per second. Once a connection received by the load balancer, it selects a target from the target group for the default rule using a flow hash routing algorithm. It also tries to open a TCP connection to the selected target on the port specified in the listener configuration. It always forwards the request without making any changes to the headers. Network Load Balancers support dynamic host port mapping.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"wp-block-image\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a class=\"lightbox\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/load-balancer.png\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" ><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"310\" height=\"262\" src=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/load-balancer.png\" alt=\"Network Load Balancer - SupportPro\" class=\"wp-image-2564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/load-balancer.png 310w, https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/load-balancer-300x254.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Classic Load Balancer<\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Classic Load Balancer manages routing decisions at either the transport layer (TCP\/SSL) or the application layer (HTTP\/HTTPS). Classic Load Balancers require a fixed relationship between the load balancer port and the container instance port.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"wp-block-image\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a class=\"lightbox\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/clb.png\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" ><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"298\" src=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/clb.png\" alt=\"Classic Load Balancer - SupportPro\" class=\"wp-image-2568\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/clb.png 320w, https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/clb-300x279.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Classic Load Balancer is a connection-based balancer where requests are forwarded by the load balancer without analyzing any of these requests. They just get forwarded to the backend section.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Difference Between ALB, NLB, and CLB<\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<div class=\"pcrstb-wrap\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Feature<\/th>\n<th>Application Load Balancer (ALB)<\/th>\n<th>Network Load Balancer (NLB)<\/th>\n<th>Classic Load Balancer (CLB)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>OSI Layer<\/td>\n<td>Layer 7 (Application)<\/td>\n<td>Layer 4 (Transport)<\/td>\n<td>Layer 4 &amp; Layer 7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Protocol Support<\/td>\n<td>HTTP, HTTPS<\/td>\n<td>TCP, SSL<\/td>\n<td>TCP, SSL, HTTP, HTTPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Best For<\/td>\n<td>Web applications, microservices, containers<\/td>\n<td>High-performance TCP traffic<\/td>\n<td>Legacy applications<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Routing Type<\/td>\n<td>Path-based &amp; host-based routing<\/td>\n<td>Flow hash routing<\/td>\n<td>Basic routing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dynamic Host Port Mapping<\/td>\n<td>Yes<\/td>\n<td>Yes<\/td>\n<td>No<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Performance<\/td>\n<td>Optimized for HTTP workloads<\/td>\n<td>Handles millions of requests per second<\/td>\n<td>Moderate<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Header Modification<\/td>\n<td>Can inspect and route based on content<\/td>\n<td>Does not modify headers<\/td>\n<td>Limited capabilities<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Target Types<\/td>\n<td>EC2, containers, IPs<\/td>\n<td>EC2, IP addresses<\/td>\n<td>EC2 instances only<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Use Case<\/td>\n<td>Modern cloud-native apps &amp; ECS<\/td>\n<td>Real-time apps, gaming, IoT<\/td>\n<td>Older AWS deployments<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Choosing the right load balancer depends entirely on your application architecture and traffic requirements.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re running modern web applications, microservices, or containerized workloads, the <strong>Application Load Balancer (ALB)<\/strong> is usually the best choice due to its advanced routing capabilities and support for dynamic host port mapping.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>For ultra-high performance and low-latency applications that require handling millions of TCP connections per second, the <strong>Network Load Balancer (NLB)<\/strong> is ideal.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Classic Load Balancer (CLB)<\/strong> is primarily suited for legacy environments and is gradually being replaced by ALB and NLB in most modern AWS architectures.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Understanding the differences between these load balancer types helps you design scalable, fault-tolerant, and high-availability systems using Elastic Load Balancing in Amazon Web Services.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>If you are building new infrastructure today, ALB or NLB should typically be your go-to choice depending on whether your workload operates at Layer 7 or Layer 4.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>If you require help, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/requestquote.php\">contact SupportPRO Server Admin<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"penci-section penci-disSticky penci-structure-20 elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-8a6a6fa elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"8a6a6fa\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"penci-ercol-50 penci-ercol-order-1 penci-sticky-ct    elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-0a844f4\" data-id=\"0a844f4\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2668b23 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"2668b23\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Nunito, sans-serif; font-size: 32px;\">Partner with&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 700; font-size: 32px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Nunito, sans-serif;\">SupportPRO<\/span><span style=\"color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Nunito, sans-serif; font-size: 32px;\">&nbsp;for 24\/7 proactive cloud support that keeps your business secure, scalable, and ahead of the curve.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-81c73df elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode\" data-id=\"81c73df\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"shortcode.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-shortcode\"><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-3350a795-db50-482f-9911-301930d1b1be\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-3350a795-db50-482f-9911-301930d1b1be\" id=\"hs-cta-3350a795-db50-482f-9911-301930d1b1be\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/2725694\/3350a795-db50-482f-9911-301930d1b1be\" ><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-3350a795-db50-482f-9911-301930d1b1be\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/2725694\/3350a795-db50-482f-9911-301930d1b1be.png\"  alt=\"Contact Us today!\"\/><\/a><\/span><script charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/js.hscta.net\/cta\/current.js\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> hbspt.cta.load(2725694, '3350a795-db50-482f-9911-301930d1b1be', {\"useNewLoader\":\"true\",\"region\":\"na1\"}); <\/script><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"penci-ercol-50 penci-ercol-order-2 penci-sticky-ct    elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-05948ac\" data-id=\"05948ac\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1f0d7a5 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"1f0d7a5\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"931\" src=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Free-server-checkup.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-12943\" alt=\"guy server checkup\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Free-server-checkup.png 904w, https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Free-server-checkup-291x300.png 291w, https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Free-server-checkup-768x791.png 768w, https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Free-server-checkup-585x602.png 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 904px) 100vw, 904px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A load balancer distributes incoming traffic toward multiple EC2 instances across different Availability Zones, increasing application fault tolerance. It detects unhealthy instances and routes traffic only to healthy targets. It&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69,1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aws","category-miscellaneous","category-technical-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2563"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16229,"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563\/revisions\/16229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}