Set Up a Load Balancer

Overview

LightYear Managed Load Balancers distribute incoming traffic across a pool of backend servers, providing high availability and horizontal scaling.

Step 1 — Create a Load Balancer

1. Navigate to Network → Load Balancers → Create.
2. Choose a region (must match your backend servers).
3. Select a forwarding rule:
   • Frontend: TCP/443 (HTTPS)
   • Backend: TCP/80 (HTTP)
4. Add backend servers by IP or server ID.
5. Configure health checks.

Health Check Configuration

SSL Termination

Upload your SSL certificate under Load Balancer → SSL Certificates:

$# Generate a self-signed cert for testing
$openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048   -keyout server.key -out server.crt   -subj "/CN=example.com"

For production, use Let's Encrypt or upload your CA-signed certificate.

Sticky Sessions

Enable sticky sessions to route a client's requests to the same backend:

• Cookie-based — LB injects a cookie; best for stateful apps
• IP-based — Routes by client IP; simpler but less reliable with NAT

Backend Health Monitoring

$# Check backend status via API
$curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>"   https://api.lightyear.host/v1/load-balancers/<LB_ID>/backends

Pricing