AWS Cost Efficiency
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AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Pricing Breakdown and Cost Optimization
To ensure smooth and efficient operation of your applications, it is important to understand how AWS Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs) work.
By learning about features such as listener rules, target groups, and autoscaling, you can maximize the benefits of ELBs to improve your application's performance.
With this knowledge, you can make informed decisions when setting up your infrastructure, enabling your applications to scale easily and provide optimal service to your users while also reducing and optimising ELB costs.
Classic Load Balancer Pricing
Pricing depends on the number of Classic Load Balancer-hours used and the amount of data processed by the load balancer.
Application Load Balancer Pricing
Pricing is influenced by the number of Application Load Balancer hours utilised, the number of Load Balancer Capacity Units (LCUs) consumed, and, if applicable, the usage of the Trust Store for Mutual TLS.
AWS Application Load Balancers’ feature HTTP header based routing enabled us to meet the requirements during peak seasons to ensure the best customer experience. With Application Load Balancers, we can scale our services 10x, meeting peak demand for apps running on EC2. - Neeraj S Chauhan - Chief Information Officer, PayU[3]
Network Load Balancer Pricing
Pricing is determined by the number of Network Load Balancer-hours utilised and the consumption of Network Load Capacity Units (NLCUs).
The built-in elasticity of the Application Load Balancers and Network Load Balancers are integral in ensuring that NuData Security’s flagship product, NuDetect, can authenticate users to help prevent an increasing amount of fraudulent activity in our customers' environments in real time. - Ian Cheng - Director, DevOps Engineering, NuData[3]
Gateway Load Balancer Pricing
Pricing is based on the number of Gateway Load Balancer-hours used per Availability Zone (AZ) and the consumption of Gateway Load Capacity Units (GLCUs).
Below is an overview of the pricing structure for Elastic Load Balancer in the Asia Pacific (Mumbai) region.[1]
To effectively manage your ELB costs, selecting the appropriate ELB for your infrastructure setup is crucial. Therefore, it is vital to thoroughly comprehend the key comparison factors among the several types of load balancers.[2]
Understanding the pricing breakdown of various ELBs involves analysing key dimensions such as new connections, active connections, processed bytes, and rule evaluations. These metrics determine the cost of load balancing services and play a crucial role in optimising expenses while ensuring efficient traffic distribution.
Different AWS Load Balancers incur varying monthly charges based on usage scenarios and components.
Transitioning from CLB to ALB minimises ELB costs through granular billing, resource efficiency, enhanced performance, flexible routing, and built-in security, leading to optimised resource utilisation and lower expenses.
Here's an example using AWS CLI to create an ALB and migrate from CLB:
# Create a new ALB
aws elbv2 create-load-balancer --name my-alb --subnets subnet-12345678 subnet-23456789 --security-groups sg-12345678
# Create a target group for the ALB
aws elbv2 create-target-group --name my-targets --protocol HTTP --port 80 --vpc-id vpc-12345678
# Register targets with the target group
aws elbv2 register-targets --target-group-arn arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:region:account-id:targetgroup/my-targets/12345678abcdef --targets Id=i-12345678 Id=i-23456789
# Create a listener for the ALB
aws elbv2 create-listener --load-balancer-arn arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:region:account-id:loadbalancer/app/my-alb/12345678abcdef --protocol HTTP --port 80 --default-actions Type=forward,TargetGroupArn=arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:region:account-id:targetgroup/my-targets/12345678abcdef
Leveraging Amazon S3 and CloudFront for static file delivery reduces ELB costs by offloading static content serving to CloudFront's edge locations, minimising requests to the ELB, lowering data transfer costs, and enhancing performance for dynamic content.
Here's an example using AWS SDK for Python (Boto3) to configure S3 and CloudFront:
import boto3
# Create an S3 bucket
s3 = boto3.client('s3')
s3.create_bucket(Bucket='my-static-files')
# Upload static files to the S3 bucket
s3.upload_file('path/to/local/file', 'my-static-files', 'file')
# Create a CloudFront distribution
cf = boto3.client('cloudfront')
cf.create_distribution(
DistributionConfig={
'CallerReference': 'my-distribution',
'Origins': {'Quantity': 1, 'Items': [{'Id': 'myS3Origin', 'DomainName': 'my-static-files.s3.amazonaws.com'}]},
'DefaultCacheBehavior': {'TargetOriginId': 'myS3Origin', 'ViewerProtocolPolicy': 'redirect-to-https', 'AllowedMethods': {'Quantity': 2, 'Items': ['HEAD', 'GET']}},
'Enabled': True
}
)
SSL/TLS offloading reduces ELB costs by transferring the decryption process from the load balancer to backend servers, enhancing efficiency, potentially reducing the need for additional ELB instances, and maintaining secure communication between clients and servers.
Here's an example using AWS CLI to configure SSL/TLS offloading on an ALB:
# Create a new ALB with SSL/TLS offloading
aws elbv2 create-load-balancer --name my-alb --subnets subnet-12345678 subnet-23456789 --security-groups sg-12345678
# Create a target group for the ALB
aws elbv2 create-target-group --name my-targets --protocol HTTP --port 80 --vpc-id vpc-12345678
# Register targets with the target group
aws elbv2 register-targets --target-group-arn arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:region:account-id:targetgroup/my-targets/12345678abcdef --targets Id=i-12345678 Id=i-23456789
# Create a listener for the ALB with SSL/TLS offloading
aws elbv2 create-listener --load-balancer-arn arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:region:account-id:loadbalancer/app/my-alb/12345678abcdef --protocol HTTPS --port 443 --certificates CertificateArn=arn:aws:acm:region:account-id:certificate/12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012 --default-actions Type=forward,TargetGroupArn=arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:region:account-id:targetgroup/my-targets/12345678abcdef
AWS offers tools like Cost Explorer, Trusted Advisor, and Budgets to optimise ELB costs. Cost Explorer provides spending insights, Trusted Advisor offers optimisation recommendations, and Budgets help set cost thresholds for alerts.
In summary, maximising cost efficiency with AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) optimization is crucial. By rightsizing resources, using auto-scaling, and monitoring costs with tools like AWS Cost Explorer, businesses can manage ELB expenses effectively.
Understanding pricing dimensions and making informed decisions based on usage patterns helps minimize unnecessary costs while maintaining high performance. With a proactive approach to optimization, businesses can save money while ensuring reliable service for their applications.
References
1. Application and Network Traffic Distribution - Elastic Load Balancing Pricing - AWS
3. Elastic Load Balancing Customers
FAQs
1. How to save load balancer cost?
To save on load balancer costs, implement Auto Scaling to dynamically adjust the number of instances based on traffic, avoiding over-provisioning. Right-size your instances by choosing the appropriate type and size based on your load requirements. Additionally, consider using spot instances where applicable for significant cost savings.
2. What are the benefits of ELB in AWS?
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) in AWS offers high availability by distributing traffic across multiple targets, ensuring reliability. It provides scalability by automatically adjusting to handle increased traffic loads. ELB also enhances security through integration with AWS security services like IAM and SSL/TLS termination.
3. How can I improve my load balancing?
Improving load balancing can be achieved by implementing health checks to route traffic to healthy instances, using multiple availability zones for redundancy, and optimizing routing algorithms based on your application's needs. Regularly monitoring performance metrics and adjusting configurations as necessary also helps maintain optimal load balancing.
4. Which load balancer is mostly used?
The most commonly used load balancer in AWS is the Application Load Balancer (ALB), which is ideal for HTTP/HTTPS traffic and provides advanced routing capabilities based on content, making it suitable for modern web applications.
5. How to choose a load balancer?
When choosing a load balancer, consider the type of traffic (HTTP/HTTPS, TCP/UDP), required features (e.g., SSL termination, WebSockets), and your application's architecture. Evaluate the performance, scalability, and cost implications of each type of load balancer (ALB, NLB, CLB) to determine the best fit for your use case.
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