Load-Balancer-Implementation

Project Overview

This project demonstrates how to set up HAProxy as a load balancer for distributing traffic between multiple web servers.
We used three AWS EC2 instances:

• Two web servers configured with Nginx serving different content.
• One HAProxy server acting as a load balancer.

The project tests and compares three load balancing algorithms:

1. Round Robin – Equal distribution of traffic.
2. IP Hash – Routes requests based on client IP.
3. Least Connections – Sends traffic to the least loaded server.

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Infrastructure Setup 🏗️

Cloud Platform: AWS EC2

• Instance 1 & 2: Nginx web servers
• Instance 3: HAProxy load balancer

Configuration Summary

• Web Servers (Nginx) serve different content.
• HAProxy is configured to distribute traffic using three different algorithms.
• Health checks ensure only active servers receive requests.

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📂 Project Structure

haproxy-loadbalancing-lab/
├── configs/
│   └── haproxy.cfg
│
├── documentation/
│   ├── implementation.md
│   ├── testing.md
│   └── screenshots/
│
├── README.md
└── .gitignore

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Step-by-Step Implementation

1️⃣ Deploy Web Servers (AWS EC2)

I launched two EC2 instances and installed Nginx:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx -y

Each server was configured to serve different content.

Web Server 1 (Instance 1) Configuration:

echo "<h1>Server 1 - HAProxy Lab</h1>" | sudo tee /var/www/html/index.html

Web Server 2 (Instance 2) Configuration:

echo "<h1>Server 2 - HAProxy Lab</h1>" | sudo tee /var/www/html/index.html

2️⃣ Configure HAProxy Load Balancer

On a third EC2 instance, I installed HAProxy:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install haproxy -y

I configured /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg:

frontend http_front
    bind *:80
    default_backend web_servers

backend web_servers
    balance roundrobin  # Load balancing method (Round Robin / LeastConn / IP Hash)
    server web1 <WebServer1-IP>:8081 check
    server web2 <WebServer2-IP>:8082 check

Then restarted HAProxy:

sudo systemctl restart haproxy

3️⃣ Implement Load Balancing Algorithms

I modified haproxy.cfg to test different algorithms:

🔄 Round Robin (Default)

balance roundrobin

📌 IP Hash

balance source

⚡ Least Connections

balance leastconn

4️⃣ Configure Health Checks

HAProxy ensures only healthy servers receive traffic:

server web1 <WebServer1-IP>:8081 check
server web2 <WebServer2-IP>:8082 check

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🛠️ Performance Testing

Tool Used: h2load from nghttp2
Test Parameters:

• 100 Requests
• 10 Concurrent Clients

I ran:

h2load -n 100 -c 10 -m 10 http://<HAProxy-IP>

📊 Results Summary

Algorithm	Req/s	Mean Request Time	Max Request Time	Min Request Time	TTFB
Round Robin	838.76	11.59ms	14.73ms	8.20ms	12.40ms
IP Hash	957.43	9.73ms	11.61ms	7.31ms	10.37ms
Least Connections	1506.06	5.52ms	8.55ms	3.65ms	5.76ms

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📌 Conclusion & Recommendation

• Least Connections is the best-performing algorithm, with the fastest response times and highest throughput.
• IP Hash ensures consistency by routing the same client IP to the same backend.
• Round Robin provides equal distribution but higher latency.

For high-performance applications, I recommend Least Connections.

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📸 Screenshots & Documentation

📂 Full Implementation Steps: documentation/implementation.md
📂 Testing Report & Results: documentation/testing.md
📂 Configuration File: configs/haproxy.cfg

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💡 Key Learnings

• HAProxy efficiently manages load balancing across multiple servers.
• Health checks prevent downtime by excluding unresponsive servers.
• Least Connections provides the best efficiency for dynamic traffic environments.