Load balancing at layer 7 using a load balancer

Although from a high level perspective the configuration steps to setup load balancing at layer 7 are very similar to setting up load balancing at layer 4, its differences—the idea behind the setup and the way it works—are important enough to dedicate a recipe to it.

In the following recipe we will talk about the specifics, and explain how you would be able to configure a load balancing device to handle traffic at layer 7. Just like the previous recipes, we won't be able to provide you with model-specific guidance as there are way too many different vendors and models out there. Instead, the purpose is to cover the principles so that you'd be able to translate those into the proper configuration for the device model you are using.

Getting ready

To complete the following steps, you will need to use a virtual or hardware load balancer. The load balancer should be able to decrypt and re-encrypt SSL traffic. In order for load balancing to work properly...