{"article":{"id":"1cab0183f56c8fdbcf662d2d5921cac3","categorySlug":"cloud-vps","slug":"load-balancers","title":"Set up a load balancer","excerpt":"Create a load balancer with its own public IP, forward ports to servers on a private network, and manage listeners, backends, weights and health.","body":"A load balancer gives you one public IPv4 address that spreads incoming traffic across several of your cloud servers. Traffic reaches your servers only over a private network, so the balanced service does not have to be exposed on each server's own public address.\n\n# Before you start\n\n- You need a private network with the servers you want to balance already attached. If you have not created one yet, follow [Connect servers with private networks](/kb/private-networks) first.\n- One attached server is enough to start, but you need two or more to actually spread the load.\n- The balancer comes with a dedicated public IPv4 address, billed monthly. The exact fee is shown in the create dialog.\n\n# Create the load balancer\n\n1. In the portal sidebar, open **Load Balancers**.\n2. Click **Create load balancer**.\n3. Enter a **Name** (up to 64 characters).\n4. In **Private network**, pick the network the balancer should forward traffic into.\n5. Click **Create**.\n\n![The Load Balancers page lists each balancer with its status, public IP, network and listener and backend counts.](/assets/kb/cloudnet/load-balancers.png)\n\nIf you have no private network yet, the dialog shows a **Go to Private Networks** shortcut instead of the form.\n\nIf your account balance covers the first invoice, the balancer is paid automatically and starts provisioning right away. Otherwise it stays in an **Awaiting payment** state, and its public IP is assigned as soon as the invoice is paid — from your balance or a direct payment. See [Invoices, VAT and how to pay](/kb/invoices-vat-payment).\n\n# The detail page\n\nAfter creating the balancer you land on its detail page. Three tiles at the top summarize it:\n\n- **Public IP** — the address to point your DNS at. It has a copy button.\n- **Private network** — the network the balancer forwards into. Backends must be members of this network.\n- **Private address** — the source address your backends see connections coming from. Allow it in any firewall running on the servers.\n\nThe page refreshes automatically every 10 seconds, so status and health changes appear on their own.\n\n![The load balancer detail page: public IP, private network and private address tiles, the Listeners table and the Backends table with weight, state and health.](/assets/kb/cloudnet/lb-detail.png)\n\n# Add listeners\n\nListeners are the public ports the balancer forwards to your backends. In the **Listeners** card:\n\n1. Choose the protocol, **TCP** or **UDP**.\n2. Enter the public **Port** and the **Target port** on your servers — for example, port 443 forwarded to target port 8443.\n3. Pick a balancing algorithm.\n4. Click **Add listener**.\n\nThe available algorithms:\n\n- **Round robin** — connections rotate evenly across backends.\n- **Weighted round robin** — like round robin, but backends with a higher weight receive a larger share.\n- **Least connections** — each new connection goes to the backend with the fewest active connections.\n- **Weighted least connections** — least connections, adjusted by backend weight.\n- **Source hash (sticky)** — the same visitor is always sent to the same backend. Use this when sessions must stay on one server.\n\nYou can change a listener's **Algorithm** at any time from the dropdown in its row; the change applies live. Each protocol and port combination can have only one listener. Click **Remove** to delete a listener.\n\n# Add backends\n\nBackends are the servers that receive the traffic. In the **Backends** card:\n\n1. Pick a server from **Select a network member…**. Only servers already attached to the balancer's private network appear here — attach missing servers to the network first.\n2. Set a **Weight** (default 100). With weighted algorithms, a higher weight means a larger share of traffic. Weights range from 1 to 10000.\n3. Click **Add backend**.\n\nTo change a weight later, edit the number in the backend's row; it saves when you click away.\n\nThe **Health** column shows a pill per backend: healthy, unhealthy, or unknown while the first check is pending. Health checks run automatically — there is nothing to configure — and the column updates on its own as the page refreshes.\n\nTo remove a backend, click **Remove** and confirm. The backend stops receiving new connections immediately, while established connections are allowed to finish during a short drain window of about a minute. While a backend is draining, its weight cannot be changed.\n\n# Point your DNS at the balancer\n\nCreate an A record for your service's hostname pointing at the balancer's **Public IP**. Only the balanced service traffic goes through that address — SSH and server administration keep using each server's own IP.\n\n# Delete a load balancer\n\nOn the detail page, click **Delete** and confirm.\n\n\u003e Deleting a load balancer releases its public IP address and stops the monthly IP charge. Any DNS records pointing at that address will stop reaching your service, so update them first.","status":"published","position":8,"createdAt":"2026-07-15T11:11:28Z","updatedAt":"2026-07-15T11:11:28Z"},"related":[{"id":"d8103957296579e9e635fc7800bda7a2","categorySlug":"cloud-vps","slug":"choosing-a-vps-line","title":"Choose a line: Standard, 100 Gbps, GPU or hourly Cloud Instances","excerpt":"Understand the difference between fixed Cloud VPS and GPU VPS plans and build-your-own Cloud Instances, and pick the right line and billing mode for your workload.","position":1,"status":"published"},{"id":"c9cf35dfb5bb44829ae9715fe04d2446","categorySlug":"cloud-vps","slug":"deploy-and-connect-vps","title":"Deploy a server and connect","excerpt":"Create a cloud server, follow the build, find its IP address and root password, then log in over SSH or through the web console in the portal.","position":2,"status":"published"},{"id":"0c8ceb77aec6974293a8891d6f1cfd91","categorySlug":"cloud-vps","slug":"vps-snapshots-backups","title":"Snapshots and backups","excerpt":"Take and restore snapshots of your VPS, and enable the Backups add-on for full copies stored separately from your server.","position":3,"status":"published"},{"id":"d0b4b2a67b8b95c63cbf6cfc1eb4bc21","categorySlug":"cloud-vps","slug":"vps-resize-plan-change","title":"Resize or change plan","excerpt":"Scale a cloud server up or down — resize a Cloud Instance's vCPU and memory, or move your Cloud VPS or GPU VPS to a bigger or smaller plan.","position":4,"status":"published"},{"id":"0485ae6dd65a367370dbbed64cad33f3","categorySlug":"cloud-vps","slug":"vps-cloud-firewall","title":"Use the cloud firewall","excerpt":"Enable the per-server cloud firewall, open only the ports you need with presets or custom rules, and deploy changes safely without locking yourself out.","position":5,"status":"published"}]}