ALB operations

To install the datumctl alb plugin, run datumctl plugin install alb.

Create a load balancer

To create a load balancer in front of an origin, run the following command:

datumctl alb create ALB_NAME --endpoint ORIGIN_URL

Replace the following:

ALB_NAME: a name for the load balancer, such as my-app.
ORIGIN_URL: the http or https URL of your origin, such as https://origin.example.com.

The command waits up to 2 minutes for Datum to assign a generated hostname, then prints it:

Application load balancer "my-app" created.
Hostname: piece-build-byrkx.datumproxy.net

Point your custom domains at this hostname with a CNAME record. Pass --no-wait to return as soon as the load balancer exists. A load balancer created with datumctl alb create starts with the following defaults:

Force HTTPS: on. HTTP requests are redirected to HTTPS. To turn it off, pass --no-force-https.
Traffic protection: Enforce at sensitivity 1. To change it, pass --waf-mode Observe or --paranoia LEVEL, or pass --no-waf to create the load balancer without a policy. Before you put an existing site behind it, see Roll out traffic protection safely.
Load balancing: least request, with health checks off. See Load balancing and health checks.

A load balancer that datumctl compute deploy --http-port attaches to a workload doesn’t use these defaults. To check what a load balancer has, run datumctl alb describe ALB_NAME. The following flags change what you create:

Flag	What it does
`--endpoint URL`	Adds a URL origin. Repeat it to split requests evenly across several origins.
`--network-service NAME --port PORT_NAME`	Sends traffic to an existing network service on its named port, such as `http`. Repeat the pair for several services.
`--hostname HOSTNAME`	Attaches a custom hostname at create time. See Serve traffic on your own domain.
`--host-header HOST`	Sets the Host header that Datum sends to the origin.
`--tls-hostname HOSTNAME`	Sets the hostname that Datum uses to verify TLS when an `--endpoint` origin is an IP address.
`--display-name NAME`	Sets the name shown in the Cloud Portal. If you omit `ALB_NAME`, Datum derives one from the display name.
`--dry-run`	Validates the load balancer with the API server without creating it.

For example, to put a load balancer in front of a workload’s network service and attach a custom hostname, run the following command:

datumctl alb create my-app \
  --network-service storefront --port http \
  --hostname app.example.com

Inspect a load balancer

To see a load balancer’s status, hostnames, routes, traffic protection, and certificates, run the following command:

datumctl alb describe ALB_NAME

Status: Active means Datum has published the configuration. It doesn’t mean a request has succeeded, so confirm with a request such as curl -I https://HOSTNAME/.

How changes roll out

You change a load balancer in one place, your project, and Datum rolls the change out to Envoy in every Datum location. There’s nothing to deploy per location and no capacity to change: Datum runs and scales the proxies. For how this works, see Envoy. A change that Datum accepts is published within seconds, but each location applies it on its own schedule. For a short time, some locations can serve the old configuration and others the new one. A change doesn’t drop connections that are already open. To confirm a change, make a request rather than reading status. If a change seems to have no effect, see A change that was accepted and never took effect.

Update a load balancer

The datumctl alb plugin changes one part of a load balancer at a time:

Hostnames: see Serve traffic on your own domain.
Routes and origins: see Send paths to different origins.
Origin weights, load balancing, and health checks: see Load balancing and health checks.
Traffic protection: see Roll out traffic protection safely.
Basic authentication: run datumctl alb auth set. See Authentication.

To change the underlying resources directly, edit the HTTPProxy and TrafficProtectionPolicy and apply them with datumctl apply. See HTTPProxy.

Delete a load balancer

To delete a load balancer, run the following command:

datumctl alb delete ALB_NAME --yes

This also removes the traffic protection policy and any basic authentication attached to it. If you create a load balancer again with the same name, it gets a new generated hostname, so update any CNAME records that pointed at the old one. Without --yes, the command asks you to type the name to confirm. A load balancer that datumctl compute deploy attached to a workload is deleted with the workload by datumctl compute destroy. See Compute operations.

Introduction

Explore

Create a load balancer

Inspect a load balancer

How changes roll out

Update a load balancer

Delete a load balancer

​Create a load balancer

​Inspect a load balancer

​How changes roll out

​Update a load balancer

​Delete a load balancer

Create a load balancer

Inspect a load balancer

How changes roll out

Update a load balancer

Delete a load balancer