Introduction to the OVHcloud Load Balancer
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29.10.2025 
Cloud / OVHcloud Load Balancer
Objective
The OVHcloud Load Balancer is a fully managed service designed to ensure high availability, performance, and scalability for your applications. Its main role is to distribute workloads across several servers or applications. Simply configure your services behind the Load Balancer — OVHcloud handles redundancy, security, and global traffic distribution.
Requirements
- Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel
- At least one service to balance (Dedicated Server, VPS, Public Cloud instance, etc.)
Instructions
The Load Balancer leverages industry-standard open-source technologies to handle different traffic types:
| Type | Description | Advantages | Technology |
|---|---|---|---|
| HTTP/HTTPS | All web services and APIs | Optimized for L7 (application layer) processing, URL redirection, headers, ACLs | HAProxy |
| TCP | Non-HTTP network services | Supports all TCP applications | HAProxy |
| UDP | All UDP traffic | Supports all UDP applications | Nginx |
Key Features
- Built-in DDoS protection across all traffic types
- Global Anycast network for optimal latency and failover
- Advanced HTTP/HTTPS support: redirections, headers, ACLs, etc.
- Additional IP and vRack compatibility: improve availability and performance with advanced networking
- High availability: isolated redundant instances ensure resilience
- Scalability: add or remove servers and farms without downtime
Architecture Overview
The Load Balancer consists of three main components:
| Component | Function |
|---|---|
| Front-end | Defines the entry protocol (HTTP/TCP/UDP) and listening port |
| Farm | Distributes traffic from the front-end across servers |
| Server | Handles inbound and outbound application traffic |
Benefits
Balance and Scale Seamlessly
Distribute workloads across multiple servers and scale horizontally without service interruption.
High Availability and Uptime
Automatic health checks detect unresponsive servers and reroute traffic instantly, minimizing downtime.
Simplified Maintenance
Place a farm or server in downtime mode for maintenance without impacting users, then reintegrate it seamlessly.
Service Integration
Easily combine with other OVHcloud services:
- Public Cloud instances
- VPS
- Dedicated Servers
- vRack private networking
Geographic Distribution (Anycast)
Serve users worldwide with low latency and resilient routing.
Versatile Use Cases
Support multiple services over HTTP(S), TCP, and UDP traffic.
Email server
Balance the load between your email servers.
Databases
Balance your databases, and make them redundant.
Go Further
Join our community of users.
OVHcloud Load Balancer FAQ
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