Version 1.16. This version is no longer supported. For information about how to upgrade to version 1.28, see Upgrade clusters in the latest documentation. For more information about supported and unsupported versions, see the Versioning page in the latest documentation.
Google Distributed Cloud supports two load balancer options: bundled and manual.
Bundled load balancer mode
If you choose bundled load balancing, the load balancer is provided for you. An
external load balancer is not needed.
There are two types of bundled load balancing:
Layer 2: All load balancer nodes and VIPs must be in the same Layer 2
subnet. The gateway of the load balancer subnet must listen to gratuitous ARP
messages and forward ARP packets to the load balancer nodes. See
Bundled load balancing with MetalLB.
BGP: This load-balancing mode supports the advertisement of ServiceType
LoadBalancer virtual IP addresses (VIPs) through external Border
Gateway Protocol (eBGP) for your clusters. Your cluster network is an autonomous
system, which interconnects with another autonomous system, an external network,
through peering. See
Bundled load balancing with BGP.
The following diagram shows an example network topology where bundled MetalLB
load balancers are located on the control plane nodes.
Manual load balancer mode
If you choose manual load balancing, Google Distributed Cloud doesn't deploy load
balancers. This allows more flexibility than bundled load balancing and there
are no Layer 2 network requirements.
You must configure your control plane nodes' VIPs on an external load
balancer before installing the cluster. After installation, you must pick a load
balancing solution for Kubernetes Services and Ingresses.
The following diagram shows an example network topology of a cluster using
manual load balancing mode with an external load balancer.
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