Shared Load Balancer vs.

Dedicated Load
Balancer

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Shared Load Balancer vs. Dedicated Load Balancer

MuleSoft CloudHub provides two types of load balancer: Shared Load Balancer and Dedicated Load
Balancer. Each type of load balancer provides different features and level of customisation. This
determines the approach that the Client needs to take in order to leverage the load balancers effectively
in their architecture.

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Shared Load Balancer vs. Dedicated Load Balancer
Shared Load Balancer (SLB)

1 Shared Load Balancer (SLB)

This type of load balancer sits outside of the Client’s VPC and it is shared between all the CloudHub
customers. There is one SLB clustered instance in each CloudHub region that serves all the CloudHub
customers in that AWS region. Therefore, SLB can only be used to load balance calls for the external-
facing APIs. It supports HTTPS, but it is not possible to use custom TLS certificates or setting up custom
domain names. Equally, since SLB sits outside the VPC, it can’t be used for load balancing between
workers internally.
If your application is deployed in a cluster of workers, mule-worker-internal-* will resolve to multiple
IPs. The IP used will be at the mercy of the consumer application. MuleSoft HTTP Request Connector will
be able to use all the IPs and it will behave in a round-robin fashion. However, if mule-worker-internal-*
is called by a non-Mule application within the same network, load balancing will need to be handled by the
consumer application itself.

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Shared Load Balancer vs. Dedicated Load Balancer
Dedicated Load Balancer (DLB)

2 Dedicated Load Balancer (DLB)

The Dedicated Load Balancer, sits inside the Client’s VPC. It is possible to configure more than one DLB in
a VPC. This type of load balancer is highly customisable and it is configured directly by the user. DLB is not
a shared service and each instance serves only the workers in the Client’s VPC.
Unlike SLB, a DLB instance can be used for load balancing internal traffic across the workers within a VPC.
However, if you are also planning to have external-facing APIs, it is recommended that a separate DLB is
used for such a purpose.
Below are some of the features that may require the Client to make use of DLB in their CloudHub solution:
• Custom TLS Certificates (including 2-Way TLS Authentication)
• Vanity Domain Names
• IP Whitelist/Blacklist
The Client might also benefit from the following DLB’s features:
• TLS offloading at DLB level (this tends to improve performance by terminating HTTPS
decryption at the DLB endpoint)
• Load Balancing across multiple workers (of the same application)
DLB is not part of the standard CloudHub subscription. Therefore, the Client needs to get in touch with
the MuleSoft Account Executive to discuss the introduction of DLB.

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