UDP load balancing

LoZio · #1 May 31st, 2010, 15:49

Hi all,
anyone using some program to create a UDP load balancer? I'm using haproxy for TCP and works great, but something for UDP seems more difficult to find, only some-years-old daemons.
I saw something about using pf, but this is not convincing. I need to balance DNS and NTP, and need f/over capabilities using CARP (for example).
Ideas?
Thanks

dennylin93 · #2 June 2nd, 2010, 14:44

Try tweaking the DNS settings. It's much simpler.

Do something like:
For DNS:

Code:

dig +short google.com ns
ns4.google.com.
ns2.google.com.
ns1.google.com.
ns3.google.com.

For NTP:

Code:

dig +short 0.pool.ntp.org a
140.112.2.189
210.68.16.24
123.204.57.143

LoZio · #3 June 3rd, 2010, 08:23

It would be useful, but I have to balance *MY* DNS and NTP servers. I'm not the client.
Clients use IP addresses to access the services.

pprocacci · #4 June 3rd, 2010, 09:16

http://morebalance.coolprojects.org/

It supports UDP as well as TCP. I've never used this however, but am not aware of anything else.

dennylin93 · #5 June 3rd, 2010, 12:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoZio

It would be useful, but I have to balance *MY* DNS and NTP servers. I'm not the client.
Clients use IP addresses to access the services.

Is there a reason why domain names can't be used instead?

LoZio · #6 June 3rd, 2010, 12:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by dennylin93

Is there a reason why domain names can't be used instead?

Yes, devices (ip phones) have ony a nifty four spaces-three dots window to insert dns and ntp server location...

In any case, having an UDP load balancer has lots+lots+lots of benefits over round robin DNS.
Bye

LoZio · #7 June 3rd, 2010, 13:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by pprocacci

http://morebalance.coolprojects.org/

It supports UDP as well as TCP. I've never used this however, but am not aware of anything else.

Quoting myself:
"only some-years-old daemons."

I just want something reasonably supported, not something abandoned 4 or 5 years ago.
Thanks, anyway.

dennylin93 · #8 June 3rd, 2010, 14:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoZio

Yes, devices (ip phones) have ony a nifty four spaces-three dots window to insert dns and ntp server location...

In any case, having an UDP load balancer has lots+lots+lots of benefits over round robin DNS.
Bye

I only have one thing left to suggest then. Use PF for load balancing incoming connections. This does have some limitations, but it should be able to work well for what you need.

Some references:

LoZio · #9 June 3rd, 2010, 14:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by dennylin93

I only have one thing left to suggest then. Use PF for load balancing incoming connections. This does have some limitations, but it should be able to work well for what you need.

Some references:

Thanks, is what I told I would like to avoid for several reasons, but if it seems the only way....
It's strange you can find several TCP load balancers (haproxy being phenomenal in my opinion), and no modern UDP lbs.
Thanks

dennylin93 · #10 June 3rd, 2010, 15:17

Perhaps there's no UDP load balancer due to the fact that most people simply use DNS round robin to achieve this and failover.

LoZio · #11 June 3rd, 2010, 15:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by dennylin93

Perhaps there's no UDP load balancer due to the fact that most people simply use DNS round robin to achieve this and failover.

With DNS you can obtain poor man load balancing and very very bad failover capabilites with disruption of services.
When you need an affordable service and fast failover/failback DNS is out of the discussion. This is why there are several TCP load balancers with very rich capabilities.

Christopher · #12 June 4th, 2010, 01:20

Although not free, Zeus Load Balancer can balance UDP datagrams.

http://www.zeus.com/products/load-balancer/index.html

LoZio · #13 June 4th, 2010, 10:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christopher

Although not free, Zeus Load Balancer can balance UDP datagrams.

http://www.zeus.com/products/load-balancer/index.html

I tested it and it was not bad, but the entire solution is far more than a load balancer. It features several application performance optimizations, and licensing is somewhat expensive, considering to use is only for UDP.
I'm resorting to test some linux solutions, but I'm not in the mood to put my production servers behind a linux machine...
Thanks

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