Configure OCI load balancers

During this task you will: configure a load balancer, register the load balancer with DNS, and test.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have:

• A previously configured Access Gateway high availability cluster with at two or more worker nodes.
• The external domain for the load balancer. For example, oag-external.com.

Steps

1. Connect to OCI and configure a load balancer:

   1. Open a browser to Oracle cloud at https://cloud.oracle.com/ and sign in.
   2. Select Networking > Load Balancers.
   3. Click Create Load Balancer.
   4. In the Select Load Balancer type dialog, ensure Load Balancer is selected and click Create Load Balancer.
   5. In the Add Details step specify:

      Field or section	Value
      Name	Enter a meaningful name (for example, AccessGatewayExternalLB).
      Visibility type	Select Public.
      Assign a public IP	Select Ephemeral or Reserved IP, as appropriate.
      Shapes	Modify the minimum and maximum bandwidth to support expected traffic.
      Choose networking	For Virtual cloud network ..., select the virtual cloud network that contains the Access Gateway worker nodes. For subnet in ..., select the subnet assigned to the Access Gateway worker nodes.

   6. Click Next.
   7. In the Choose Backends step specify:

      Field or section	Value
      Load balancing policy	Select IP Hash.
      Backends	Click Add Backends and select the appropriate instances of Access Gateway. You can define a load balancer without backend resources and then assign them later.
      Assign a public IP	Select Ephemeral or Reserved IP, as appropriate.
      Shapes	Modify minimum and maximum bandwidth to support expected traffic.
      Choose networking	For Virtual cloud network..., select the virtual cloud network that contains the Access Gateway worker nodes. For subnet in ..., select the subnet assigned to the Access Gateway worker nodes.
      Specify Health Check Policy	For URL Path (URI), enter /status Leave all other values unchanged.

   8. Click Next.
   9. In the Configure listener step specify:

      Field or section	Value
      Name	Enter a meaningful name (for example, OAG LB listener).
      Traffic type	Select HTTP.

   10. Click Next.
   11. In the Manage logging step, click Submit.

   Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will then create your load balancer, which can take between 1 and 5 minutes.

2. Register the load balancer with your DNS service provider. The following steps may vary by DNS provider:
   
   1. In the OCI console go to Networking > Load Balancers.
   2. Note the IP address of the load balancer.
   3. Connect to your DNS Service provider and add a CNAME record mapping the front end IP address to
      the external name. For example:

      CNAME host: www.[your external name], target: load balancer ip address

   4. Return to the OCI console.
3. Test:

   Load balancers can be tested using a header based application. Complete this section if an application does not already exist for www.[external domain].com.

   1. Return to or sign in to the Access Gateway Admin UI console.
   2. Select the Applications tab.
   3. Click Add.
   4. Select Sample Header.
   5. In the Essentials tab, specify the following:

      Field	Value
      Name	A meaningful name for the application (for example, Load Balancer Header Test).
      Public Domain	www.[external domain] (for example, www.oag-external.com)
      Groups	Everyone

   6. Click Next. The Attributes tab opens.
   7. Click Next. The Policies tab opens.
   8. Click Done.
   9. Open a new browser or an Chrome incognito window.
   10. Enter the URL associated with the application.
   11. The Access Gateway sample header app page should display.

Related resources

About load balancers

Oracle OCI Load Balancers