Load Balancing Questions

arrmo

Hi,

First of all - I have my Load Balancing setup working, it works quite well in fact (very happy with it … :)). But a couple questions,

why can I not enter a hostname, and rather have to hard-code and IP address (for the load balancing servers)? It would be handy to use the hostname, that's all.
Is there also a reason why I can't just say "WAN" in the Virtual Server (instead of entering an IP address for a DHCP interface)?

Thanks!

jimp

@arrmo:

why can I not enter a hostname, and rather have to hard-code and IP address (for the load balancing servers)? It would be handy to use the hostname, that's all.

Using hostnames there would increase the complexity a bit. It would rely on DNS being functional for the LB daemon rules to work, and it likely would not pick up changes while running. I'm not sure relayd supports using a hostname in its config in those places either. It might, but if it doesn't, then that would be an even larger hurdle.

@arrmo:

Is there also a reason why I can't just say "WAN" in the Virtual Server (instead of entering an IP address for a DHCP interface)?

Most likely, it was because whoever coded the GUI used a simple text field to make the entry rather than a drop-down or combo box.

If you need something fancier than what the GUI provides, then HAproxy or a similar package may be more your speed. Though I'm not sure it supports either of those items either, it is much more flexible than the built-in load balancing daemon.

arrmo

Makes sense - thanks for the info!