Is there a way to use NLB to load balance HTTP requests for PHP-FPM + NGINX?

Question

So far, I have been using PHP-FPM + Nginx on ECS with Application Load Balancer, and it's working. The problem is using ALB we cannot use static IP address, this problem is solved if I use NLB instead of ALB.

But it seems NLB only use TCP protocol, and cannot load balance HTTP protocol. Is there a solution for this?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 01 '20 at 05:46

ALB we cannot use static IP address

If you want static public IP for your ALB, you can enable AWS Global Accelerator:

Using an accelerator provides static IP addresses and improves the availability and performance of your applications.

ALB supports the accelerator:

AWS Global Accelerator Now Supports Client IP Address Preservation for Application Load Balancer Endpoints

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 01 '20 at 05:25

2

NLB is low level and does not know you are balancing HTTP when a request arrives : From NLB point of view it is just a TCP request. One solution is to use another ALB after your NLB if you can't do the redirection in nginx. So the flow of the request will be :

Your User ---> NLB ---> ALB --> ...

answered Oct 01 '20 at 05:25

Maestro

41
2

This is good idea. I thought about it as well, but using NLB between Users and ALB somehow blow up (increased from 5 each minute to 1000) the number of new connection for ALB. I guess this is because of the health check from NLB which cannot be disabled. – Yosi Pramajaya Oct 01 '20 at 09:39
Yes your Guess is right It is because of HealthCheck @see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48135471/nlb-target-group-health-checks-are-out-of-control – Maestro Oct 01 '20 at 16:50

Is there a way to use NLB to load balance HTTP requests for PHP-FPM + NGINX?

2 Answers2