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This guide uses an example to teach you how to configure failover for a Google Cloud internal passthrough Network Load Balancer. Before following this guide, familiarize yourself with the following:
To follow this guide, you need to create instances and modify a network in a project. You should be either a project owner or editor, or you should have all of the following Compute Engine IAM roles:
For more information, see the following guides:
SetupThis guide shows you how to configure and test an internal passthrough Network Load Balancer that uses failover. The steps in this section describe how to configure the following:
us-west1-a
us-west1-c
us-west1
region to manage connection distribution among the backend VMsThe architecture for this example looks like this:
Simple failover example for an internal passthrough Network Load Balancer (click to enlarge).Unmanaged instance groups are used for both the primary and failover backends in this example. For more information, see supported instance groups.
Configuring a network, region, and subnetThis example uses the following VPC network, region, and subnet:
Network: The network is a custom mode VPC network named lb-network
.
Region: The region is us-west1
.
Subnet: The subnet, lb-subnet
, uses the 10.1.2.0/24
IP range.
To create the example network and subnet, follow these steps.
ConsoleIn the Google Cloud console, go to the VPC networks page.
Click Create VPC network.
Enter a Name of lb-network
.
In the Subnets section:
lb-subnet
us-west1
10.1.2.0/24
Click Create.
Create the custom VPC network:
gcloud compute networks create lb-network --subnet-mode=custom
Create a subnet in the lb-network
network in the us-west1
region:
gcloud compute networks subnets create lb-subnet \ --network=lb-network \ --range=10.1.2.0/24 \ --region=us-west1
Make a POST
request to the networks.insert
method.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/global/networks
{ "routingConfig": { "routingMode": "REGIONAL" }, "name": "lb-network", "autoCreateSubnetworks": false }
Make a POST
request to the subnetworks.insert
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your Google Cloud project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/regions/us-west1/subnetworks
{ "name": "lb-subnet", "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "ipCidrRange": "10.1.2.0/24", "privateIpGoogleAccess": false }Configuring firewall rules
This example uses the following firewall rules:
fw-allow-lb-subnet
: An ingress rule, applicable to all targets in the VPC network, allowing traffic from sources in the 10.1.2.0/24
range. This rules allows incoming traffic from any source within the lb-subnet
to the instances (VMs) being load balanced.
fw-allow-ssh
: An ingress rule applied to the instances being load balanced, allowing incoming SSH connectivity on TCP port 22 from any address. You can choose a more restrictive source IP range for this rule; for example, you can specify the IP ranges of the systems from which you plan to initiate SSH sessions. This example uses the target tag allow-ssh
to identify the VMs to which the firewall rule applies.
fw-allow-health-check
: An ingress rule, applicable to the instances being load balanced, that allows traffic from the Google Cloud health checking systems (130.211.0.0/22
and 35.191.0.0/16
). This example uses the target tag allow-health-check
to identify the instances to which it should apply.
Without these firewall rules, the default deny ingress rule blocks incoming traffic to the backend instances.
Note: You must create a firewall rule to allow health checks from the IP ranges of Google Cloud probe systems. See probe IP ranges for more information. ConsoleIn the Google Cloud console, go to the Firewall policies page.
Click Create firewall rule and enter the following information to create the rule to allow subnet traffic:
fw-allow-lb-subnet
lb-network
1000
10.1.2.0/24
Click Create.
Click Create firewall rule again to create the rule to allow incoming SSH connections:
fw-allow-ssh
lb-network
1000
allow-ssh
0.0.0.0/0
tcp:22
Click Create.
Click Create firewall rule a third time to create the rule to allow Google Cloud health checks:
fw-allow-health-check
lb-network
1000
allow-health-check
130.211.0.0/22
and 35.191.0.0/16
Click Create.
Create the fw-allow-lb-subnet
firewall rule to allow communication from with the subnet:
gcloud compute firewall-rules create fw-allow-lb-subnet \ --network=lb-network \ --action=allow \ --direction=ingress \ --source-ranges=10.1.2.0/24 \ --rules=tcp,udp,icmp
Create the fw-allow-ssh
firewall rule to allow SSH connectivity to VMs with the network tag allow-ssh
. When you omit source-ranges
, Google Cloud interprets the rule to mean any source.
gcloud compute firewall-rules create fw-allow-ssh \ --network=lb-network \ --action=allow \ --direction=ingress \ --target-tags=allow-ssh \ --rules=tcp:22
Create the fw-allow-health-check
rule to allow Google Cloud health checks.
gcloud compute firewall-rules create fw-allow-health-check \ --network=lb-network \ --action=allow \ --direction=ingress \ --target-tags=allow-health-check \ --source-ranges=130.211.0.0/22,35.191.0.0/16 \ --rules=tcp,udp,icmp
Create the fw-allow-lb-subnet
firewall rule by making a POST
request to the firewalls.insert
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your Google Cloud project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/global/firewalls
{ "name": "fw-allow-lb-subnet", "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "priority": 1000, "sourceRanges": [ "10.1.2.0/24" ], "allowed": [ { "IPProtocol": "tcp" }, { "IPProtocol": "udp" }, { "IPProtocol": "icmp" } ], "direction": "INGRESS", "logConfig": { "enable": false }, "disabled": false }
Create the fw-allow-ssh
firewall rule by making a POST
request to the firewalls.insert
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your Google Cloud project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/global/firewalls
{ "name": "fw-allow-ssh", "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "priority": 1000, "sourceRanges": [ "0.0.0.0/0" ], "targetTags": [ "allow-ssh" ], "allowed": [ { "IPProtocol": "tcp", "ports": [ "22" ] } ], "direction": "INGRESS", "logConfig": { "enable": false }, "disabled": false }
Create the fw-allow-health-check
firewall rule by making a POST
request to the firewalls.insert
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your Google Cloud project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/global/firewalls
{ "name": "fw-allow-health-check", "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "priority": 1000, "sourceRanges": [ "130.211.0.0/22", "35.191.0.0/16" ], "targetTags": [ "allow-health-check" ], "allowed": [ { "IPProtocol": "tcp" }, { "IPProtocol": "udp" }, { "IPProtocol": "icmp" } ], "direction": "INGRESS", "logConfig": { "enable": false }, "disabled": false }Creating backend VMs and instance groups
In this step, you'll create the backend VMs and unmanaged instance groups:
ig-a
in us-west1-a
is a primary backend with two VMs:
vm-a1
vm-a2
ig-c
in us-west1-c
is a failover backend with two VMs:
vm-c1
vm-c2
The primary and failover backends are placed in separate zones for instructional clarity and to handle failover in case one zone goes down.
Each primary and backup VM is configured to run an Apache web server on TCP ports 80 and 443. Each VM is assigned an internal IP address in the lb-subnet
for client access and an ephemeral external (public) IP address for SSH access. For information about removing external IP addresses, see removing external IP addresses from backend VMs.
By default, Apache is configured to bind to any IP address. Internal passthrough Network Load Balancers deliver packets by preserving the destination IP address.
Ensure that server software running on your primary and backup VMs is listening on the IP address of the load balancer's internal forwarding rule. If you configure multiple internal forwarding rules, ensure that your software listens to the internal IP address associated with each one. The destination IP address of a packet delivered to a backend VM by an internal passthrough Network Load Balancer is the internal IP address of the forwarding rule.
For instructional simplicity, all primary and backup VMs run Debian GNU/Linux 12.
ConsoleCreate backend VMs
In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.
Repeat the following steps to create four VMs, using the following name and zone combinations.
vm-a1
, zone: us-west1-a
vm-a2
, zone: us-west1-a
vm-c1
, zone: us-west1-c
vm-c2
, zone: us-west1-c
Click Create instance.
Set the Name as indicated in step 2.
For the Region, choose us-west1
, and choose a Zone as indicated in step 2.
In the Boot disk section, ensure that the selected image is Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm). Click Choose to change the image if necessary.
Click Advanced options.
Click Networking and configure the following fields:
allow-health-check
and allow-ssh
.lb-network
lb-subnet
Click Management. Enter the following script into the Startup script field. The script contents are identical for all four VMs:
#! /bin/bash apt-get update apt-get install apache2 -y a2ensite default-ssl a2enmod ssl vm_hostname="$(curl -H "Metadata-Flavor:Google" \ http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/name)" echo "Page served from: $vm_hostname" | \ tee /var/www/html/index.html systemctl restart apache2
Click Create.
Create instance groups
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance groups page.
Repeat the following steps to create two unmanaged instance groups each with two VMs in them, using these combinations.
ig-a
, zone: us-west1-a
, VMs: vm-a1
and vm-a2
ig-c
, zone: us-west1-c
, VMs: vm-c1
and vm-c2
Click Create instance group.
Click New unmanaged instance group.
Set Name as indicated in step 2.
In the Location section, choose us-west1
for the Region, and then choose a Zone as indicated in step 2.
For Network, enter lb-network
.
For Subnetwork, enter lb-subnet
.
In the VM instances section, add the VMs as indicated in step 2.
Click Create.
Create four VMs by running the following command four times, using these four combinations for VM_NAME
and ZONE
. The script contents are identical for all four VMs.
VM_NAME
of vm-a1
and ZONE
of us-west1-a
VM_NAME
of vm-a2
and ZONE
of us-west1-a
VM_NAME
of vm-c1
and ZONE
of us-west1-c
VM_NAME
of vm-c2
and ZONE
of us-west1-c
gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME \ --zone=ZONE \ --image-family=debian-12 \ --image-project=debian-cloud \ --tags=allow-ssh,allow-health-check \ --subnet=lb-subnet \ --metadata=startup-script='#! /bin/bash apt-get update apt-get install apache2 -y a2ensite default-ssl a2enmod ssl vm_hostname="$(curl -H "Metadata-Flavor:Google" \ http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/name)" echo "Page served from: $vm_hostname" | \ tee /var/www/html/index.html systemctl restart apache2'
Create the two unmanaged instance groups in each zone:
gcloud compute instance-groups unmanaged create ig-a \ --zone=us-west1-a gcloud compute instance-groups unmanaged create ig-c \ --zone=us-west1-c
Add the VMs to the appropriate instance groups:
gcloud compute instance-groups unmanaged add-instances ig-a \ --zone=us-west1-a \ --instances=vm-a1,vm-a2 gcloud compute instance-groups unmanaged add-instances ig-c \ --zone=us-west1-c \ --instances=vm-c1,vm-c2
Create four backend VMs by making four POST
requests to the instances.insert
method.
For the four VMs, use the following VM names and zones:
VM_NAME
of vm-a1
and ZONE
of us-west1-a
VM_NAME
of vm-a2
and ZONE
of us-west1-a
VM_NAME
of vm-c1
and ZONE
of us-west1-c
VM_NAME
of vm-c2
and ZONE
of us-west1-c
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: your project IDZONE
: the zone of the instanceDEBIAN_IMAGE_NAME
: the name of the Debian image for the instance. The current DEBIAN_IMAGE_NAME
can be obtained by running the following gcloud
command:
gcloud compute images list \ --filter="family=debian-12"
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/ZONE
/instances
{ "name": "VM_NAME", "tags": { "items": [ "allow-health-check", "allow-ssh" ] }, "machineType": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/machineTypes/e2-standard-2", "canIpForward": false, "networkInterfaces": [ { "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/subnetworks/lb-subnet", "accessConfigs": [ { "type": "ONE_TO_ONE_NAT", "name": "external-nat", "networkTier": "PREMIUM" } ] } ], "disks": [ { "type": "PERSISTENT", "boot": true, "mode": "READ_WRITE", "autoDelete": true, "deviceName": "VM_NAME", "initializeParams": { "sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/DEBIAN_IMAGE_NAME", "diskType": "projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/diskTypes/pd-standard", "diskSizeGb": "10" } } ], "metadata": { "items": [ { "key": "startup-script", "value": "#! /bin/bash\napt-get update\napt-get install apache2 -y\na2ensite default-ssl\na2enmod ssl\nvm_hostname=\"$(curl -H \"Metadata-Flavor:Google\" \\\nhttp://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/name)\"\necho \"Page served from: $vm_hostname\" | \\\ntee /var/www/html/index.html\nsystemctl restart apache2" } ] }, "scheduling": { "preemptible": false }, "deletionProtection": false }
Create two instance groups by making a POST
request to the instanceGroups.insert
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your Google Cloud project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/us-west1-a/instanceGroups
{ "name": "ig-a", "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/subnetworks/lb-subnet" }
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/us-west1-c/instanceGroups
{ "name": "ig-c", "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/subnetworks/lb-subnet" }
Add instances to each instance group by making a POST
request to the instanceGroups.addInstances
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your Google Cloud project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/us-west1-a/instanceGroups/ig-a/addInstances
{ "instances": [ { "instance": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-a/instances/vm-a1", "instance": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-a/instances/vm-a2" } ] }
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/us-west1-c/instanceGroups/ig-c/addInstances
{ "instances": [ { "instance": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-c/instances/vm-c1", "instance": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-c/instances/vm-c2" } ] }Creating a client VM
This example creates a client VM (vm-client
) in the same region as the load balancer. The client is used to demonstrate how failover works.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.
Click Create instance.
Set the Name to vm-client
.
Set the Zone to us-west1-a
.
Click Advanced options.
Click Networking and configure the following fields:
allow-ssh
.lb-network
lb-subnet
Click Create.
The client VM can be in any zone in the same region as the load balancer, and it can use any subnet in that region. In this example, the client is in the us-west1-a
zone, and it uses the same subnet used by the primary and backup VMs.
gcloud compute instances create vm-client \ --zone=us-west1-a \ --image-family=debian-12 \ --image-project=debian-cloud \ --tags=allow-ssh \ --subnet=lb-subnetAPI
Make a POST
request to the instances.insert
method.
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: your project IDDEBIAN_IMAGE_NAME
: the name of the Debian image for the instance. The current DEBIAN_IMAGE_NAME
can be obtained by running the following gcloud
command:
gcloud compute images list \ --filter="family=debian-12"
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/us-west1-a/instances
{ "name": "vm-client", "tags": { "items": [ "allow-ssh" ] }, "machineType": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-a/machineTypes/e2-standard-2", "canIpForward": false, "networkInterfaces": [ { "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/subnetworks/lb-subnet", "accessConfigs": [ { "type": "ONE_TO_ONE_NAT", "name": "external-nat", "networkTier": "PREMIUM" } ] } ], "disks": [ { "type": "PERSISTENT", "boot": true, "mode": "READ_WRITE", "autoDelete": true, "deviceName": "vm-client", "initializeParams": { "sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/DEBIAN_IMAGE_NAME", "diskType": "projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-a/diskTypes/pd-standard", "diskSizeGb": "10" } } ], "scheduling": { "preemptible": false }, "deletionProtection": false }Configuring load balancer components
These steps configure all of the internal passthrough Network Load Balancer components starting with the health check and backend service, and then the frontend components:
Health check: This example uses an HTTP health check that simply checks for an HTTP 200
(OK) response. For more information, see the health checks section of the internal passthrough Network Load Balancer overview.
Backend service: Because the example passes HTTP traffic through the load balancer, the configuration specifies TCP, not UDP. To illustrate failover, this backend service has a failover ratio of 0.75
.
Forwarding rule: This example creates a single internal forwarding rule.
Internal IP address: In this example, we specify an internal IP address, 10.1.2.99
, when we create the forwarding rule.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Load balancing page.
be-ilb
.us-west1
.lb-network
.ig-a
instance group. Ensure that Use this instance group as a failover group for backup is not checked. Click Done.ig-c
instance group. Check Use this instance group as a failover group for backup. Click Done.hc-http-80
HTTP
80
NONE
/
Note that when you use the Google Cloud console to create your load balancer, the health check is global. If you want to create a regional health check, use gcloud
or the API.0.75
fr-ilb
ilb-subnet
ip-ilb
10.1.2.99
80
for the Port number.Create a new HTTP health check to test TCP connectivity to the VMs on 80.
gcloud compute health-checks create http hc-http-80 \ --region=us-west1 \ --port=80
Create the backend service for HTTP traffic:
gcloud compute backend-services create be-ilb \ --load-balancing-scheme=internal \ --protocol=tcp \ --region=us-west1 \ --health-checks=hc-http-80 \ --health-checks-region=us-west1 \ --failover-ratio 0.75
Add the primary backend to the backend service:
gcloud compute backend-services add-backend be-ilb \ --region=us-west1 \ --instance-group=ig-a \ --instance-group-zone=us-west1-a
Add the failover backend to the backend service:
gcloud compute backend-services add-backend be-ilb \ --region=us-west1 \ --instance-group=ig-c \ --instance-group-zone=us-west1-c \ --failover
Create a forwarding rule for the backend service. When you create the forwarding rule, specify 10.1.2.99
for the internal IP in the subnet.
gcloud compute forwarding-rules create fr-ilb \ --region=us-west1 \ --load-balancing-scheme=internal \ --network=lb-network \ --subnet=lb-subnet \ --address=10.1.2.99 \ --ip-protocol=TCP \ --ports=80 \ --backend-service=be-ilb \ --backend-service-region=us-west1
Create the health check by making a POST
request to the regionHealthChecks.insert
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/regions/us-west1/regionHealthChecks
{ "name": "hc-http-80", "type": "HTTP", "httpHealthCheck": { "port": 80 } }
Create the regional backend service by making a POST
request to the regionBackendServices.insert
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/regions/us-west1/backendServices
{ "name": "be-ilb", "backends": [ { "group": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-a/instanceGroups/ig-a", "balancingMode": "CONNECTION" }, { "group": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-c/instanceGroups/ig-c", "balancingMode": "CONNECTION" "failover": true } ], "failoverPolicy": { "failoverRatio": 0.75 }, "healthChecks": [ "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/healthChecks/hc-http-80" ], "loadBalancingScheme": "INTERNAL", "connectionDraining": { "drainingTimeoutSec": 0 } }
Create the forwarding rule by making a POST
request to the forwardingRules.insert
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/regions/us-west1/forwardingRules
{ "name": "fr-ilb", "IPAddress": "10.1.2.99", "IPProtocol": "TCP", "ports": [ "80", "8008", "8080", "8088" ], "loadBalancingScheme": "INTERNAL", "subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/subnetworks/lb-subnet", "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "backendService": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/backendServices/be-ilb", "networkTier": "PREMIUM" }Testing
These tests show how to validate your load balancer configuration and learn about its expected behavior.
Client test procedureThis procedure contacts the load balancer from the client VM. You'll use this procedure to complete the other tests.
Connect to the client VM instance.
gcloud compute ssh vm-client --zone=us-west1-a
Make a web request to the load balancer using curl
to contact its IP address.
curl http://10.1.2.99
Note the text returned by the curl
command. The name of the backend VM generating the response is displayed in that text; for example: Page served from: vm-a1
After you've configured the example load balancer, all four of the backend VMs should be healthy:
vm-a1
and vm-a2
vm-c1
and vm-c2
Follow the client test procedure. Repeat the second step a few times. The expected behavior is for traffic to be served by the two primary VMs, vm-a1
and vm-a2
, because both of them are healthy. You should see each primary VM serve a response approximately half of the time because no session affinity has been configured for this load balancer.
This test simulates the failure of vm-a1
so you can observe failover behavior.
Connect to the vm-a1
VM.
gcloud compute ssh vm-a1 --zone=us-west1-a
Stop the Apache web server. After ten seconds, Google Cloud considers this VM to be unhealthy. (The hc-http-80
health check that you created in the setup uses the default check interval of five seconds and unhealthy threshold of two consecutive failed probes.)
sudo apachectl stop
Follow the client test procedure. Repeat the second step a few times. The expected behavior is for traffic to be served by the two backup VMs, vm-c1
and vm-c2
. Because only one primary VM, vm-a2
, is healthy, the ratio of healthy primary VMs to total primary VMs is 0.5
. This number is less than the failover threshold of 0.75
, so Google Cloud reconfigured the load balancer's active pool to use the backup VMs. You should see each backup VM serve a response approximately half of the time as long as no session affinity has been configured for this load balancer.
This test simulates failback by restarting the Apache server on vm-a1
.
Connect to the vm-a1
VM.
gcloud compute ssh vm-a1 --zone=us-west1-a
Start the Apache web server and wait 10 seconds.
sudo apachectl start
Follow the client test procedure. Repeat the second step a few times. The expected behavior is for traffic to be served by the two primary VMs, vm-a1
and vm-a2
. With both primary VMs being healthy, the ratio of healthy primary VMs to total primary VMs is 1.0
, greater than the failover threshold of 0.75
, so Google Cloud configured the active pool to use the primary VMs again.
This section extends the example configuration by adding more primary and backup VMs to the load balancer. It does so by creating two more backend instance groups to demonstrate that you can distribute primary and backup VMs among multiple zones in the same region:
ig-d
in us-west1-c
, serves as a primary backend with two VMs:
vm-d1
vm-d2
ig-b
in us-west1-a
, serves as a failover backend with two VMs:
vm-b1
vm-b2
The modified architecture for this example looks like this:
Multi-zone internal passthrough Network Load Balancer failover (click to enlarge). Create additional VMs and instance groupsFollow these steps to create the additional primary and backup VMs and their corresponding unmanaged instance groups.
ConsoleCreate backend VMs
In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.
Repeat the following steps to create four VMs, using the following name and zone combinations.
vm-b1
, zone: us-west1-a
vm-b2
, zone: us-west1-a
vm-d1
, zone: us-west1-c
vm-d2
, zone: us-west1-c
Click Create instance.
Set the Name as indicated in step 2.
For the Region, choose us-west1
, and choose a Zone as indicated in step 2.
In the Boot disk section, ensure that the selected image is Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm). Click Choose to change the image if necessary.
Click Advanced options and make the following changes:
allow-ssh
and allow-health-check
lb-network
lb-subnet
Click Management. In the Startup script field, copy and paste the following script contents. The script contents are identical for all four VMs:
#! /bin/bash apt-get update apt-get install apache2 -y a2ensite default-ssl a2enmod ssl vm_hostname="$(curl -H "Metadata-Flavor:Google" \ http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/name)" echo "Page served from: $vm_hostname" | \ tee /var/www/html/index.html systemctl restart apache2
Click Create.
Create instance groups
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance groups page.
Repeat the following steps to create two unmanaged instance groups each with two VMs in their one, using these combinations.
ig-b
, zone: us-west1-a
, VMs: vm-b1
and vm-b2
ig-d
, zone: us-west1-c
, VMs: vm-d1
and vm-d2
Click Create instance group.
Click New unmanaged instance group.
Set Name as indicated in step 2.
In the Location section, choose us-west1
for the Region, and then choose a Zone as indicated in step 2.
For Network, enter lb-network
.
For Subnetwork, enter lb-subnet
.
In the VM instances section, add the VMs as indicated in step 2.
Click Create.
Create four VMs by running the following command four times, using these four combinations for VM_NAME
and ZONE
. The script contents are identical for all four VMs.
VM_NAME
of vm-b1
and ZONE
of us-west1-a
VM_NAME
of vm-b2
and ZONE
of us-west1-a
VM_NAME
of vm-d1
and ZONE
of us-west1-c
VM_NAME
of vm-d2
and ZONE
of us-west1-c
gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME \ --zone=ZONE \ --image-family=debian-12 \ --image-project=debian-cloud \ --tags=allow-ssh,allow-health-check \ --subnet=lb-subnet \ --metadata=startup-script='#! /bin/bash apt-get update apt-get install apache2 -y a2ensite default-ssl a2enmod ssl vm_hostname="$(curl -H "Metadata-Flavor:Google" \ http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/name)" echo "Page served from: $vm_hostname" | \ tee /var/www/html/index.html systemctl restart apache2'
Create the two unmanaged instance groups in each zone:
gcloud compute instance-groups unmanaged create ig-b \ --zone=us-west1-a gcloud compute instance-groups unmanaged create ig-d \ --zone=us-west1-c
Add the VMs to the appropriate instance groups:
gcloud compute instance-groups unmanaged add-instances ig-b \ --zone=us-west1-a \ --instances=vm-b1,vm-b2 gcloud compute instance-groups unmanaged add-instances ig-d \ --zone=us-west1-c \ --instances=vm-d1,vm-d2
Create four backend VMs by making four POST
requests to the instances.insert
method.
For the four VMs, use the following VM names and zones:
VM_NAME
of vm-b1
and ZONE
of us-west1-a
VM_NAME
of vm-b2
and ZONE
of us-west1-a
VM_NAME
of vm-d1
and ZONE
of us-west1-c
VM_NAME
of vm-d2
and ZONE
of us-west1-c
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: your project IDDEBIAN_IMAGE_NAME
: the name of the Debian image for the instance. The current DEBIAN_IMAGE_NAME
can be obtained by running the following gcloud
command:
gcloud compute images list \ --filter="family=debian-12"
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/ZONE/instances
{ "name": "VM_NAME", "tags": { "items": [ "allow-health-check", "allow-ssh" ] }, "machineType": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/machineTypes/e2-standard-2", "canIpForward": false, "networkInterfaces": [ { "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/subnetworks/lb-subnet", "accessConfigs": [ { "type": "ONE_TO_ONE_NAT", "name": "external-nat", "networkTier": "PREMIUM" } ] } ], "disks": [ { "type": "PERSISTENT", "boot": true, "mode": "READ_WRITE", "autoDelete": true, "deviceName": "VM_NAME", "initializeParams": { "sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/DEBIAN_IMAGE_NAME", "diskType": "projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/diskTypes/pd-standard", "diskSizeGb": "10" } } ], "metadata": { "items": [ { "key": "startup-script", "value": "#! /bin/bash\napt-get update\napt-get install apache2 -y\na2ensite default-ssl\na2enmod ssl\nvm_hostname=\"$(curl -H \"Metadata-Flavor:Google\" \\\nhttp://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/name)\"\necho \"Page served from: $vm_hostname\" | \\\ntee /var/www/html/index.html\nsystemctl restart apache2" } ] }, "scheduling": { "preemptible": false }, "deletionProtection": false }
Create two instance groups by making a POST
request to the instanceGroups.insert
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/us-west1-a/instanceGroups
{ "name": "ig-b", "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/subnetworks/lb-subnet" }
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/us-west1-c/instanceGroups
{ "name": "ig-d", "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/networks/lb-network", "subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/us-west1/subnetworks/lb-subnet" }
Add instances to each instance group by making a POST
request to the instanceGroups.addInstances
method. Replace PROJECT_ID
with your project ID.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/us-west1-a/instanceGroups/ig-b/addInstances
{ "instances": [ { "instance": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-a/instances/vm-b1", "instance": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-a/instances/vm-b2" } ] }
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/us-west1-c/instanceGroups/ig-d/addInstances
{ "instances": [ { "instance": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-c/instances/vm-d1", "instance": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/us-west1-c/instances/vm-d2" } ] }Adding a primary backend
You can use this procedure as a template for how to add an unmanaged instance group to an existing internal passthrough Network Load Balancer's backend service as a primary backend. For the example configuration, this procedure shows you how to add instance group ig-d
as a primary backend to the be-ilb
load balancer.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Load balancing page.
In the Load balancers tab, click the name of an existing internal TCP or internal UDP load balancer (in this example, be-ilb
).
Click Edit edit .
In the Backend configuration, click Add backend and select an unmanaged instance group (in this example, ig-d
).
Ensure that Use this instance group as a failover group for backup is not checked.
Click Done and then click Update.
Use the following gcloud
command to add a primary backend to an existing internal passthrough Network Load Balancer's backend service.
gcloud compute backend-services add-backend BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME \ --instance-group INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME \ --instance-group-zone INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE \ --region REGION
Replace the following:
BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend service. For the example, use be-ilb
.INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME
: the name of the instance group to add as a primary backend. For the example, use ig-d
.INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE
: is the zone where the instance group is defined. For the example, use us-west1-c
.REGION
: the region of the load balancer. For the example, use us-west1
.Add a primary backend to an existing backend service with the regionBackendServices.patch
method.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/backendServices/BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME { "backends": [ { "balancingMode": "connection", "failover": false, "group": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE/instanceGroups/INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME" } ] }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: your project IDREGION
: the region of the load balancer. For the example, use us-west1
.BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend service. For the example, use be-ilb
.INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME
: the name of the instance group to add as a primary backend. For the example, use ig-d
.INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE
: the zone where the instance group is defined. For the example, use us-west1-c
.You can use this procedure as a template for how to add an unmanaged instance group to an existing internal passthrough Network Load Balancer's backend service as a failover backend. For the example configuration, this procedure shows you how to add instance group ig-b
as a failover backend to the be-ilb
load balancer.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Load balancing page.
In the Load balancers tab, click the name of an existing load balancer of type TCP/UDP (Internal) (in this example, be-ilb
).
Click Edit edit .
In the Backend configuration, click Add backend and select an unmanaged instance group (in this example, ig-b
).
Check Use this instance group as a failover group for backup.
Click Done and then click Update.
Use the following gcloud
command to add a failover backend to an existing internal passthrough Network Load Balancer's backend service.
gcloud compute backend-services add-backend BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME \ --instance-group INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME \ --instance-group-zone INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE \ --region REGION \ --failover
Replace the following:
BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend service. For the example, use be-ilb
.INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME
: the name of the instance group to add as a primary backend. For the example, use ig-b
.INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE
: is the zone where the instance group is defined. For the example, use us-west1-a
.REGION
is the region of the load balancer. For the example, use us-west1
.Add a failover backend to an existing backend service with the regionBackendServices.patch
method.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/backendServices/BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME { "backends": [ { "balancingMode": "connection", "failover": true, "group": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE/instanceGroups/INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME" } ] }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: your project IDBACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend service. For the example, use be-ilb
.INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME
: the name of the instance group to add as a primary backend. For the example, use ig-b
.INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE
: is the zone where the instance group is defined. For the example, use us-west1-a
.REGION
: the region of the load balancer. For the example, use us-west1
.You can use convert a primary backend to a failover backend, or vice versa, without having to remove the instance group from the internal passthrough Network Load Balancer's backend service.
ConsoleIn the Google Cloud console, go to the Load balancing page.
In the Load balancers tab, click the name of an existing existing load balancer of type TCP/UDP (Internal).
Click Edit edit .
In the Backend configuration, click the name of one of the backend instance groups. Then:
Click Done and then click Update.
Use the following gcloud
command to convert an existing primary backend to a failover backend:
gcloud compute backend-services update-backend BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME \ --instance-group INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME \ --instance-group-zone INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE \ --region REGION \ --failover
Use the following gcloud
command to convert an existing failover backend to a primary backend:
gcloud compute backend-services update-backend BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME \ --instance-group INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME \ --instance-group-zone INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE \ --region REGION \ --no-failover
Replace the following:
BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend serviceINSTANCE_GROUP_NAME
: the name of the instance group to add as a primary backendINSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE
: the zone where the instance group is definedREGION
: the region of the load balancerConvert a primary backend to a failover backend, or vice versa, by using the regionBackendServices.patch
method.
To convert a primary backend to a failover backend:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/backendServices/BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME { "backends": [ { "failover": true, "group": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE/instanceGroups/INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME" } ] }
To convert a failover backend to a primary backend:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/backendServices/BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME { "backends": [ { "failover": false, "group": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/INSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE/instanceGroups/INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME" } ], }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: your project IDBACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend serviceINSTANCE_GROUP_NAME
: the name of the instance group to add as a primary backendINSTANCE_GROUP_ZONE
: the zone where the instance group is definedREGION
: the region of the load balancerThis section describes how to manage a failover policy for an internal passthrough Network Load Balancer's backend service. A failover policy consists of the:
For more information on the parameters of a failover policy, see:
The following instructions describe how to define the failover policy for an existing internal passthrough Network Load Balancer.
ConsoleTo define a failover policy using the Google Cloud console you must have at least one failover backend.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Load balancing page.
From the Load balancers tab, click the name of an existing load balancer of type TCP/UDP (Internal).
Click Edit edit .
Make sure you have at least one failover backend. At least one of the load balancer's backends must have the Use this instance group as a failover group for backup selected.
Click Advanced configurations.
0.0
and 1.0
, inclusive.Click Review and finalize and then click Update.
To define a failover policy using the gcloud CLI, update the load balancer's backend service:
gcloud compute backend-services update BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME \ --region REGION \ --failover-ratio FAILOVER_RATIO \ --drop-traffic-if-unhealthy \ --no-connection-drain-on-failover
Replace the following:
BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend service. For the example, use be-ilb
.REGION
: the region of the load balancer. For the example, use us-west1
.FAILOVER_RATIO
: the failover ratio. Possible values are between 0.0
and 1.0
, inclusive. For the example, use 0.75
.--drop-traffic-if-unhealthy
instructs the load balancer to drop traffic when all primary VMs and all backup VMs are unhealthy. Change this to --no-drop-traffic-if-unhealthy
if you want to distribute traffic among all primary VMs when all backend VMs are unhealthy.--no-connection-drain-on-failover
instructs the load balancer to terminate existing TCP connections quickly during failover. Use --connection-drain-on-failover
to enable connection draining during failover.Use the regionBackendServices.patch
method to define the failover policy.
PATCH https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/backendServices/BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME { "failoverPolicy": { "failoverRatio": FAILOVER_RATIO, "dropTrafficIfUnhealthy": [true|false], "disableConnectionDrainOnFailover": [true|false] } }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: your project IDREGION
: the region of the load balancerBACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend serviceFAILOVER_RATIO
: the failover ratio. Possible values are between 0.0
and 1.0
, inclusive.dropTrafficIfUnhealthy
to true
instructs the load balancer to drop traffic when all primary VMs and all backup VMs are unhealthy. Set this to false
if you want to distribute traffic among all primary VMs when all backend VMs are unhealthy.disableConnectionDrainOnFailover
to true
instructs the load balancer to terminate existing TCP connections quickly when doing a failover. Set this to false
to enable connection draining during failover.The following instructions describe how to view the existing failover policy for an internal passthrough Network Load Balancer.
ConsoleThe Google Cloud console shows the existing failover policy settings when you edit an internal passthrough Network Load Balancer. Refer to defining a failover policy for instructions.
gcloudTo list the failover policy settings using the gcloud CLI, use the following command. Undefined settings in a failover policy use the default failover policy values.
gcloud compute backend-services describe BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME \ --region REGION \ --format="get(failoverPolicy)"
Replace the following:
BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend serviceREGION
: the region of the load balancerUse the regionBackendServices.get
method to view the failover policy.
The response to the API request shows the failover policy. An example is shown below.
GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/backendServices/BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: your project IDREGION
: the region of the load balancerBACKEND_SERVICE_NAME
: the name of the load balancer's backend service{ ... "failoverPolicy": { "disableConnectionDrainOnFailover": false, "dropTrafficIfUnhealthy": false, "failoverRatio": 0.75 ... }What's next
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-08-07 UTC.
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