Let us take a closer look at the different GCP load balancer types. At Bobcares our GCP support services have a note on the Load balancers in GCP to help you choose the right tier.

External versus internal load balancing

Google Cloud load balancer types are classified as either external or internal:

• External load balancers route internet traffic to the Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network. Global load balancing needs the Premium Network Service Tier. We can use the standard Tier for regional load balancing.
• And note that the internal load balancers deliver traffic to Google Cloud instances.

Global versus regional load balancing

Firstly, make use of global load balancing with the GCP load balancing. We can choose the best load balancing types for us through the support pricing services by Google. Users want access to the same apps and content while the backends are in deployment across several areas.

We can enable access by using a single anycast IP address. IPv6 termination can also be provided through global load balancing.

When the backends are in a single region, we only require IPv4 termination. Or we will only have jurisdictional compliance requirements for traffic to remain in a certain region. In this case we can use regional load balancing.

Backend region and network

Load balancer

• Firstly, Global external HTTP(S) load balancer.
• After that, Global external HTTP(S) load balancer (classic) External SSL proxy load balancer External TCP proxy load balancer.
• Finally, external TCP/UDP network load balancer. Internal TCP/UDP load balancer. Internal HTTP(S) load balancer. Internal regional TCP proxy load balancer. Regional external HTTP(S) load balancer.

Backend region and network

• Firstly, backends can be located in any location and VPC network.
• After that, backends in the Premium Tier can be in any location and on any VPC network. In the Standard Tier, backends are in any VPC network. They must be in the same region as the forwarding rule.
• Finally, the same VPC network and region as the backend service must be shared by all backends. Additionally, the backend service has to be located in the same VPC network and region as the forwarding rule.

Geographic control over where TLS Terminates

Workloads need the regionalized resources for “access” reasons require that some resources be kept in a certain region or stop traffic in a region.

External SSL proxy load balancer types and global external HTTP(S) load balancers terminate Transport Layer Security (TLS) in various locations around the globe. This will decrease latency between clients and the load balancer.

To have more control over where TLS ends, we should utilize either the regional external HTTP(S) load balancer or the network load balancer. After this, stop TLS on backends in the important areas.

Load balancer resilience to outages

Load balancers are an essential component of the majority of highly available applications. Google Cloud provides regional as well as global load balancers. In any case, it is critical to remember that the total application’s ability depends not only on the load balancer but also on the backend services.

The table below describes the load balancer’s ability based on the distribution or scope of the load balancer and the type:jetbackup restore file

Premium versus Standard Network Service Tiers

Note that, the GCP offers both the Premium and Standard network tiers with their load balancer types. It allows us to imporve the connection between internet connected systems and Google Cloud instances.

We need the support of the premium version for this process. The Premium Tier traffic routes over Google’s premium, whilst Standard Tier traffic routes through standard ISP networks.

Under the GCP load balancer types It is better to use the Premium Tier for great performance and minimal latency. If we do not provide a network tier, the load balancer will use Premium Tier by default.

Note that in the load balancer types of GCP, a standard Tier is a low cost option. It is for applications with no testing latency or performance needs. Not all load balancers deploy in the Standard Tier, as shown in the table.

Finally, we can use the Standard Tier for certain resources as the GCP billing services explain it. We can use the Premium Tier for others as we select a tier at the resource level. This might include the external IP address for a load balancer or VM.

Proxy Versus Pass Through Load Balancing

Proxy load balancers close incoming client connections and set up new connections between the load balancer and the backends. All managed services based on the open source Envoy proxy are regional external HTTP(S) load balancers, internal HTTP(S) load balancers, and internal regional TCP proxy load balancers.

Global external HTTP(S) load balancers use Google Front End (GFE) proxies to stop client connections throughout the world. Furthermore, the global external HTTP(S) load balancer uses the envoy proxies. It is good at traffic management ability. The load balancer type has tools such as weighted traffic split, outlier detection, and traffic mirroring.

Note that, client connections won’t stop by passing through load balancers. Backend VMs receive load balanced packets with the source, destination, and, if appropriate, port information not changing. The backend VMs then stop the connections. Responses from the backend VMs routs straight to the clients, bypassing the load balancer.

Note that process is known as a straight server return. When we need to keep the client packet information, use a pass through load balancer. Pass-through load balancers include the external TCP/UDP network load balancer and the internal TCP/UDP load balancer.

Traffic type

It is important to choose the best load balancer to manage traffic. It is important to have a clear picture of our traffic. Choosing the traffic type is necessary to settle on a particular GCP load balancer type.

Another issue to choose which load balancer type to use is the sort of traffic that the load balancer must handle:

1: HTTP and HTTPS traffic:

• Global external HTTP(S) load balancer
• Global external HTTP(S) load balancer (classic)
• Regional external HTTP(S) load balancer
• Internal HTTP(S) load balance

2: SSL traffic:

External SSL proxy load balancer

3: TCP traffic:

• External TCP proxy load balancer
• External TCP/UDP network load balancer
• Internal TCP/UDP load balancer
• Internal regional TCP proxy load balancer

4: UDP traffic:

• External TCP/UDP network load balancer
• Internal TCP/UDP load balancer

5: ESP or ICMP traffic:

Network load balancer

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Conclusion

To sum up we have now gone through the different load balancer types in GCP. With the support of our GCP support service, we have gone through all the load balancer types in GCP.