Load balancer configuration in OpenEverest¶
Overview¶
Provisioning external access to Kubernetes clusters can be challenging, since cloud providers like AWS, GCP, and Azure each have their own annotations and configurations for load balancers. As a result, users often have to manually adjust settings for each environment, leading to a lack of a unified approach.
Why use load balancer?¶
OpenEverest simplifies the process by enabling administrators to define reusable load balancer configurations. This includes cloud provider-specific settings that can be applied consistently across clusters, ensuring:
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Consistency across cloud and on-prem environments
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Reduced manual effort when provisioning external access
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Flexibility to support multiple cloud providers with a unified approach
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Dynamic value injection using Go templating for cluster-specific configurations
Understanding some key terms¶
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| ClusterIP | In Kubernetes, a service type that exposes an application on a virtual IP address within the cluster. |
| LoadBalancer | In Kubernetes, a service type that exposes your application to the internet using a cloud provider’s load balancing infrastructure. |
| Load balancer Config | A preset in OpenEverest that contains a set of key-value pairs representing annotations applied to the appropriate LoadBalancer. Supports Go templating for dynamic value injection based on the target DatabaseCluster. |
| OpenEverest user | A user of OpenEverest who manages database clusters. |
| OpenEverest admin | A user with full permissions to configure and maintain OpenEverest. |
Use cases for load balancer configuration¶
Standardized configurations¶
Reuse a predefined LoadBalancerConfig across multiple clusters to ensure consistent networking behavior. This is useful for organizations with strict compliance or networking policies.
Quick environment provisioning¶
Enable Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) users to quickly create clusters with external access in a single step, eliminating the need for platform teams to manually patch services.
Dynamic cluster-specific configurations¶
Use Go templating in load balancer annotations to inject cluster-specific values automatically. This is particularly useful for integrations with tools like ExternalDNS, where each database cluster requires unique values (such as hostnames) derived from the cluster’s metadata or specifications.