Load Balancing Apps in Docker Swarm with NGINX

August 3, 2016

Rick NelsonHead of Pre-sales at NGINX, Inc.

Formerly:- Riverbed, Zeus, VMware, BEA and more

Michael PleshakovPlatform Integration Engineer at NGINX, Inc.

What’s New With Docker?Docker Version 1.12

Docker Swarm• A clustering and

scheduling tool for containers

• Easily spreads containers across a cluster of Docker hosts

Swarm ModeCombines Docker hosts into a swarm:• Fault tolerant• Self healing• Decentralized

Additional Features• Easier Swarm cluster setup• Cryptographic node

identity• Every node identified by a

key• SSL/TLS between nodes

Additional Features• Service API• Scaling• Rolling updates• Health checks

Networking and Load Balancing• Cluster-wide overlay

network• DNS-based service

discovery• Built-in load balancing

Docker Swarm Architecture

Docker Swarm – Networking

Docker Swarm – Built-In Load Balancing

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Swarm Demo

Why Another Load Balancer?• SSL termination• Content-based routing• Access control and authorization• Rewrites and redirects

NGINX F/OSS Adds• SSL termination• Content-based routing• Access control and auth• Rewrites and redirects• Advanced LB algorithms

• Multiprotocol support• Advanced logging• Limits• Scripting• Security

Docker Swarm – NGINX F/OSSExternal Client Requests

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NGINX F/OSSSwarm Demo

NGINX PlusThe supported commercial version of NGINX

NGINX PlusBased on NGINX F/OSS

NGINX PlusAdds enterprise-grade load balancing features

NGINX PlusAn application delivery controller (ADC)

OPEN SOURCE PLUSFEATURES

REQUEST ROUTING COMPRESSION LOAD BALANCING APP HEALTH MONITORING

EDGE CACHE MEDIA STREAMING MONITORING ANALYTICS

What’s Inside NGINX Plus?GUI VISUALIZATION

CONFIGURATION RESTFUL APISSL EMBEDDED SCRIPT LANGUAGE

What’s Been Added in NGINX Plus?• Active health checks

NGINX Plus – Active Health Checks

Sophisticated, app-specific health checksDetect application failures, orchestrate upgrades

Internet

Server 1 isfailing

Servers 2 and 3are active

What’s Been Added in NGINX Plus?• Session persistence

NGINX Plus – Session Persistence - Draining

Internet

Server 1 isdraining

Sessions (orange) against server 1 are allowed to complete.New sessions are directed to servers 2 and 3

Servers 2 and 3are active

What’s Been Added in NGINX Plus?• Dynamic reconfiguration

NGINX Plus – Dynamic Reconfiguration

http { resolver 192.168.0.2; upstream backends1 { zone backends1 64k; server api.u.com resolve; } upstream backends2 { zone backends2 64k; server 192.168.100.10; server 192.168.100.11; } server { . . . location /upstream_conf { upstream_conf; } . . . }}

DNS

Changes in DNS can dynamically update NGINX Plus’ load-balancing configuration API

Upstream_conf API is a simple HTTP API to control configuration

What’s Been Added in NGINX Plus?• Live activity monitoring

NGINX Plus – Live Activity Monitoring

Docker Swarm – NGINX F/OSSExternal Client Requests

Docker Swarm – NGINX PlusExternal Client Requests

32

NGINX PlusSwarm Demo Part 1

NGINX Plus Swarm Mode Demo

34

NGINX PlusSwarm Demo Part 2

Load-Balancing ModelsThere are different options for deploying a load balancer in a microservices environment

Proxy Model

• Inbound traffic is managed through a reverse proxy/load balancer

• Services are left to themselves to connect to each other

• Often through round-robin DNS

Docker Swarm – NGINX F/OSSExternal Client Requests

Docker Swarm – NGINX F/OSSInternal Service-to-Service Requests

Router Mesh Model

• Inbound routing through reverse proxy

• Centralized load balancing through a separate load-balancing service

• Marathon LB and Deis Router work like this

Fabric Model

• Routing is done at the container level

• Services connect to each other as needed

• NGINX Plus acts as the forward and reverse proxy for all requests

• NGINX Plus caches SSL sessions

SummaryThe new orchestration features in Docker v1.12 are powerful

SummaryOpen source NGINX provides a more advanced load balancing solution

SummaryNGINX Plus brings enterprise grade load balancing

Q & A

1. Docker Swarm2. NGINX Plus and Docker3. DNS Service Discovery with NGINX4. The Fabric Model

Resources