Using Nginx as a TCP load balancer

Until recently, the open source version of Nginx would only allow load balancing in the context of HTTP requests. In the meantime, the commercial subscription Nginx Plus took the concept one step further: using Nginx as TCP load balancer. This would pave the way to much broader possibilities: you could then set up Nginx to distribute the load across any form of networked servers—database servers, email servers, literally everything that communicates via TCP. In May 2015, the authors decided that TCP load balancing should be part of the open source version. As of Nginx 1.9.0, the stream module is included in the source code readily available on http://nginx.org/.

The stream module

The way TCP load balancing works in Nginx is remarkably similar to HTTP load balancing. However, since the module which brings forth the new set of directives is not included in the default build, you will need to run the configure command with the following flag before building...