Abiquo 6.0 adds support for load balancers in Google Cloud Platform. For more details see https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/features
In GCP, load balancing entities can be regional or global.
In the myCloud view, there is a new Load balancers page in the Global section to manage global entities, in addition to the page in the Locations section to manage regional entities.
To use a load balancer in GCP, first create a target group. Depending on the type of target group you select, different UI fields will display.
NOTE: You cannot create target groups in Abiquo of type: MANAGED_INSTANCE_GROUP and REGIONAL_MANAGED_INSTANCE_GROUP. However, you can onboard these target groups into Abiquo.
Here are some examples of typical target groups
- Unmanaged instance group
- Note that you should enter a Name for the receiving Port, which you will also need to enter in the Load balancer's Routingrule tab
- And select the Global network, Subnet, Location, and Availability zone of the VMs that you will add to the target group
Google Compute Engine VM IP port
To load balance IPs in Google Compute Engine, which can be public IPs or subnet IPs
After you create the target group, you can create a load balancer, in the Location (regional) or Global section.
Abiquo supports load balancers that are internal (using a subnet IP address) and external (using a public IP address). You can select one IP address for your load balancer. If you are creating an internal load balancer with a subnet address, you will need to select a private subnet.
The Algorithm in Abiquo represents the session affinity in GCP. See https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/backend-service#session_affinity
For the Routing rules, if your target group is an unmanaged instance group, then you will need to supply the same name of the port as the "out name".
In GCP, the Routing rules represent the Forwarding rule protocol and port + target proxy (if proxy based) + url map (if HTTP(s)) + backend service.
And the Forward rule protocol can be used to identify LB type.
Forward rule protocol/ port -> Routing rule protocol/port IN
Backend service protocol/ named port -> routing rule protocol OUT/ port name out (Only for proxy based LBs).
Backend service backends -> Forward action target groups target of the default conditional action. Balancing mode will be “Rate” for HTTP(S) LBs and “Connection” for other LBs. See https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/backend-service#balancing-mode
And you will need to create a health check for each backend service.
After you create a load balancer, you can add nodes to the target groups. The nodes may be IP addresses and ports.
Or nodes may be VMs.
You can check the health of the VM nodes on the Target Group details panel. After you select the Load balancer from the drop-down in the top-right hand corner, the platform will display the Status of each node.