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<div id="preamble"><h1>Apache Module mod_proxy_balancer</h1>
<div class="toplang">
<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html" title="English"> en </a> |
<a href="../ja/mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html" hreflang="ja" rel="alternate" title="Japanese"> ja </a></p>
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<table class="module"><tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td><code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy.html">mod_proxy</a></code> extension for load balancing </td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#Status">Status:</a></th><td>Extension</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#ModuleIdentifier">Module Identifier:</a></th><td>proxy_balancer_module</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#SourceFile">Source File:</a></th><td>mod_proxy_balancer.c</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#Compatibility">Compatibility:</a></th><td>Available in version 2.1 and later</td></tr></table>
<h3>Summary</h3>
<p>This module <em>requires</em> the service of <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy.html">mod_proxy</a></code>. It provides load balancing support for
<code>HTTP</code>, <code>FTP</code> and <code>AJP13</code> protocols
</p>
<p>Thus, in order to get the ability of load balancing,
<code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy.html">mod_proxy</a></code> and <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html">mod_proxy_balancer</a></code>
have to be present in the server.</p>
<div class="warning"><h3>Warning</h3>
<p>Do not enable proxying until you have <a href="mod_proxy.html#access">secured your server</a>. Open proxy
servers are dangerous both to your network and to the Internet at
large.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="quickview"><h3 class="directives">Directives</h3>
<p>This module provides no
directives.</p>
<h3>Topics</h3>
<ul id="topics">
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#scheduler">Load balancer scheduler algorithm</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#example">Example of a balancer configuration</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#requests">Request Counting Algorithm</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#traffic">Weighted Traffic Counting Algorithm</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#busyness">Pending Request Counting Algorithm</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#environment">Exported Environment Variables</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#enable">Enabling Balancer Manager Support</a></li>
</ul><h3>See also</h3>
<ul class="seealso">
<li><code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy.html">mod_proxy</a></code></li>
</ul></div>
<div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="scheduler" id="scheduler">Load balancer scheduler algorithm</a></h2>
<p>At present, there are 3 load balancer scheduler algorithms available
for use: Request Counting, Weighted Traffic Counting and Pending Request
Counting. These are controlled via the <code>lbmethod</code> value of
the Balancer definition. See the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy.html#proxypass">ProxyPass</a></code>
directive for more information.</p>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="example" id="example">Example of a balancer configuration</a></h2>
<p>Before we dive into the technical details, here's an example of
how you might use <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html">mod_proxy_balancer</a></code> to provide
load balancing between two back-end servers:
</p>
<div class="example"><p><code>
<Proxy balancer://mycluster><br />
BalancerMember http://192.168.1.50:80<br />
BalancerMember http://192.168.1.51:80<br />
</Proxy><br />
ProxyPass /test balancer://mycluster/
</code></p></div>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="requests" id="requests">Request Counting Algorithm</a></h2>
<p>Enabled via <code>lbmethod=byrequests</code>, the idea behind this
scheduler is that we distribute the requests among the
various workers to ensure that each gets their configured share
of the number of requests. It works as follows:</p>
<p><dfn>lbfactor</dfn> is <em>how much we expect this worker
to work</em>, or <em>the workers's work quota</em>. This is
a normalized value representing their "share" of the amount of
work to be done.</p>
<p><dfn>lbstatus</dfn> is <em>how urgent this worker has to work
to fulfill its quota of work</em>.</p>
<p>The <dfn>worker</dfn> is a member of the load balancer,
usually a remote host serving one of the supported protocols.</p>
<p>We distribute each worker's work quota to the worker, and then look
which of them needs to work most urgently (biggest lbstatus). This
worker is then selected for work, and its lbstatus reduced by the
total work quota we distributed to all workers. Thus the sum of all
lbstatus does not change(*) and we distribute the requests
as desired.</p>
<p>If some workers are disabled, the others will
still be scheduled correctly.</p>
<div class="example"><pre><code>for each worker in workers
worker lbstatus += worker lbfactor
total factor += worker lbfactor
if worker lbstatus > candidate lbstatus
candidate = worker
candidate lbstatus -= total factor</code></pre></div>
<p>If a balancer is configured as follows:</p>
<table><tr><th>worker</th>
<th class="data">a</th>
<th class="data">b</th>
<th class="data">c</th>
<th class="data">d</th></tr>
<tr><th>lbfactor</th>
<td class="data">25</td>
<td class="data">25</td>
<td class="data">25</td>
<td class="data">25</td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data">0</td>
<td class="data">0</td>
<td class="data">0</td>
<td class="data">0</td></tr>
</table>
<p>And <var>b</var> gets disabled, the following schedule is produced:</p>
<table><tr><th>worker</th>
<th class="data">a</th>
<th class="data">b</th>
<th class="data">c</th>
<th class="data">d</th></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data"><em>-50</em></td>
<td class="data">0</td>
<td class="data">25</td>
<td class="data">25</td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data">-25</td>
<td class="data">0</td>
<td class="data"><em>-25</em></td>
<td class="data">50</td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data">0</td>
<td class="data">0</td>
<td class="data">0</td>
<td class="data"><em>0</em></td></tr>
<tr><td class="data" colspan="5">(repeat)</td></tr>
</table>
<p>That is it schedules: <var>a</var> <var>c</var> <var>d</var>
<var>a</var> <var>c</var> <var>d</var> <var>a</var> <var>c</var>
<var>d</var> ... Please note that:</p>
<table><tr><th>worker</th>
<th class="data">a</th>
<th class="data">b</th>
<th class="data">c</th>
<th class="data">d</th></tr>
<tr><th>lbfactor</th>
<td class="data">25</td>
<td class="data">25</td>
<td class="data">25</td>
<td class="data">25</td></tr>
</table>
<p>Has the exact same behavior as:</p>
<table><tr><th>worker</th>
<th class="data">a</th>
<th class="data">b</th>
<th class="data">c</th>
<th class="data">d</th></tr>
<tr><th>lbfactor</th>
<td class="data">1</td>
<td class="data">1</td>
<td class="data">1</td>
<td class="data">1</td></tr>
</table>
<p>This is because all values of <dfn>lbfactor</dfn> are normalized
with respect to the others. For:</p>
<table><tr><th>worker</th>
<th class="data">a</th>
<th class="data">b</th>
<th class="data">c</th></tr>
<tr><th>lbfactor</th>
<td class="data">1</td>
<td class="data">4</td>
<td class="data">1</td></tr>
</table>
<p>worker <var>b</var> will, on average, get 4 times the requests
that <var>a</var> and <var>c</var> will.</p>
<p>The following asymmetric configuration works as one would expect:</p>
<table><tr><th>worker</th>
<th class="data">a</th>
<th class="data">b</th></tr>
<tr><th>lbfactor</th>
<td class="data">70</td>
<td class="data">30</td></tr>
<tr><td class="data" colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data"><em>-30</em></td>
<td class="data">30</td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data">40</td>
<td class="data"><em>-40</em></td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data"><em>10</em></td>
<td class="data">-10</td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data"><em>-20</em></td>
<td class="data">20</td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data"><em>-50</em></td>
<td class="data">50</td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data">20</td>
<td class="data"><em>-20</em></td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data"><em>-10</em></td>
<td class="data">10</td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data"><em>-40</em></td>
<td class="data">40</td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data">30</td>
<td class="data"><em>-30</em></td></tr>
<tr><th>lbstatus</th>
<td class="data"><em>0</em></td>
<td class="data">0</td></tr>
<tr><td class="data" colspan="3">(repeat)</td></tr>
</table>
<p>That is after 10 schedules, the schedule repeats and 7 <var>a</var>
are selected with 3 <var>b</var> interspersed.</p>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="traffic" id="traffic">Weighted Traffic Counting Algorithm</a></h2>
<p>Enabled via <code>lbmethod=bytraffic</code>, the idea behind this
scheduler is very similar to the Request Counting method, with
the following changes:</p>
<p><dfn>lbfactor</dfn> is <em>how much traffic, in bytes, we want
this worker to handle</em>. This is also a normalized value
representing their "share" of the amount of work to be done,
but instead of simply counting the number of requests, we take
into account the amount of traffic this worker has seen.</p>
<p>If a balancer is configured as follows:</p>
<table><tr><th>worker</th>
<th class="data">a</th>
<th class="data">b</th>
<th class="data">c</th></tr>
<tr><th>lbfactor</th>
<td class="data">1</td>
<td class="data">2</td>
<td class="data">1</td></tr>
</table>
<p>Then we mean that we want <var>b</var> to process twice the
amount of bytes than <var>a</var> or <var>c</var> should. It does
not necessarily mean that <var>b</var> would handle twice as
many requests, but it would process twice the I/O. Thus, the
size of the request and response are applied to the weighting
and selection algorithm.</p>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="busyness" id="busyness">Pending Request Counting Algorithm</a></h2>
<p>Enabled via <code>lbmethod=bybusyness</code>, this scheduler keeps
track of how many requests each worker is assigned at present. A new
request is automatically assigned to the worker with the lowest
number of active requests. This is useful in the case of workers
that queue incoming requests independently of Apache, to ensure that
queue length stays even and a request is always given to the worker
most likely to service it fastest.</p>
<p>In the case of multiple least-busy workers, the statistics (and
weightings) used by the Request Counting method are used to break the
tie. Over time, the distribution of work will come to resemble that
characteristic of <code>byrequests</code>.</p>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="environment" id="environment">Exported Environment Variables</a></h2>
<p>At present there are 6 environment variables exported:</p>
<dl>
<dt><var><a name="balancer_session_sticky" id="balancer_session_sticky">BALANCER_SESSION_STICKY</a></var></dt>
<dd>
<p>This is assigned the <var>stickysession</var> value used in the current
request. It is the cookie or parameter name used for sticky sessions</p>
</dd>
<dt><var><a name="balancer_session_route" id="balancer_session_route">BALANCER_SESSION_ROUTE</a></var></dt>
<dd>
<p>This is assigned the <var>route</var> parsed from the current
request.</p>
</dd>
<dt><var><a name="balancer_name" id="balancer_name">BALANCER_NAME</a></var></dt>
<dd>
<p>This is assigned the name of the balancer used for the current
request. The value is something like <code>balancer://foo</code>.</p>
</dd>
<dt><var><a name="balancer_worker_name" id="balancer_worker_name">BALANCER_WORKER_NAME</a></var></dt>
<dd>
<p>This is assigned the name of the worker used for the current request.
The value is something like <code>http://hostA:1234</code>.</p>
</dd>
<dt><var><a name="balancer_worker_route" id="balancer_worker_route">BALANCER_WORKER_ROUTE</a></var></dt>
<dd>
<p>This is assigned the <var>route</var> of the worker that will be
used for the current request.</p>
</dd>
<dt><var><a name="balancer_route_changed" id="balancer_route_changed">BALANCER_ROUTE_CHANGED</a></var></dt>
<dd>
<p>This is set to 1 if the session route does not match the
worker route (BALANCER_SESSION_ROUTE != BALANCER_WORKER_ROUTE) or the
session does not yet have an established route. This can be used to
determine when/if the client needs to be sent an updated route
when sticky sessions are used.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="enable" id="enable">Enabling Balancer Manager Support</a></h2>
<p>This module <em>requires</em> the service of
<code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_status.html">mod_status</a></code>.
Balancer manager enables dynamic update of balancer
members. You can use balancer manager to change the balance
factor or a particular member, or put it in the off line
mode.
</p>
<p>Thus, in order to get the ability of load balancer management,
<code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_status.html">mod_status</a></code> and <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html">mod_proxy_balancer</a></code>
have to be present in the server.</p>
<p>To enable load balancer management for browsers from the example.com
domain add this code to your <code>httpd.conf</code>
configuration file</p>
<div class="example"><p><code>
<Location /balancer-manager><br />
SetHandler balancer-manager<br />
<br />
Order Deny,Allow<br />
Deny from all<br />
Allow from .example.com<br />
</Location>
</code></p></div>
<p>You can now access load balancer manager by using a Web browser
to access the page
<code>http://your.server.name/balancer-manager</code></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="bottomlang">
<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html" title="English"> en </a> |
<a href="../ja/mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html" hreflang="ja" rel="alternate" title="Japanese"> ja </a></p>
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