What Is ELB?

ELB Components

ELB consists of the following components:

• Load balancer: distributes incoming traffic across backend servers in one or more availability zones (AZs).
• Listener: uses the protocol and port you specify to check for requests from clients and route the requests to associated backend servers based on the listening rules you define. You can add one or more listeners to a load balancer.
• Backend server group: routes requests from the load balancer to one or more backend servers. You need to add at least one backend server to a backend server group.

  You can set a weight for each backend server based on their performance.

  You can also configure health checks for a backend server group to check the health of each backend server. When the health check result of a backend server is Unhealthy, the load balancer automatically stops routing new requests to this server until it recovers.

Load Balancer Type

ELB provides the following types of load balancers: classic load balancer, dedicated load balancer, and shared load balancer. Dedicated load balancer and shared load balancer are called elastic load balancers collectively.

• Classic load balancers can handle simple, light-traffic web services.
• Shared load balancers are suitable for web services with heavy traffic. Requests are forwarded based on domain names or URLs, making request routing more flexible. Shared load balancers were previously named enhanced load balancers.
• Dedicated load balancers: You have exclusive use of resources, so that the performance of a dedicated load balancer is not affected by other load balancers. In addition, there are a wide range of specifications available for selection.

Currently, you can apply for participating in the OBT of dedicated load balancers in the AP-Singapore region.

For details about the differences between classic and shared load balancers, see Differences Between Classic and Shared Load Balancers.

For details about the differences between load balancers, see Differences Between Shared and Dedicated Load Balancers.

Currently, classic load balancers are supported only in regions in the Latin America.

Accessing ELB

You can use either of the following methods to access ELB:

• Management console

  A graphical user interface is available for you. To access the service, log in to the management console and choose Network > Elastic Load Balance (ELB) on the homepage.

• APIs

  You can call APIs to access ELB. For details, see the Elastic Load Balance API Reference.

  

  Dedicated load balancers can be accessed only through the console for now.