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Load-Balancing
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Load Balancing
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Deploy containerized applications

Cloudflare’s Load Balancer distributes global traffic intelligently across Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and Amazon Web Services EC2 (AWS). Cloudflare’s native Kubernetes support provides a multi-cloud deployment that is transparent to end users.

Application deployed across Google Kubernetes Engine and AWS

Prerequisites

Before you begin, be sure you have the following:

  • Access to Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
  • Access to AWS
  • Docker image
  • A domain on Cloudflare (on the Free, Pro, or Business plan) with a Load Balancing subscription, configurable in Traffic on the dashboard

Deploying a containerized web application on Google Kubernetes Engine

You will be using Google Cloud Shell interface, which comes preinstalled with the gcloud console, docker, and kubectl command-line tools used below. If you use Cloud Shell, you do not need to install these command-line tools on your workstation.

Getting started

Go to the Kubernetes Engine. Click the Activate Google Cloud Shell button at the top of the console window. A Cloud Shell session with a command prompt will open in a new frame at the bottom of the console.

Use the Cloud Shell in Google Kubernetes Engine

Set default configuration values by running the following commands:

  • gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
  • gcloud config set compute/zone us-west1-a

Deploying a web application

  1. Create a container cluster to run the container image. A cluster consists of a pool of Compute Engine VM instances running Kubernetes.

    • Run the following command to create a three-node cluster (our cluster name is camilia-cluster): gcloud container clusters create camilia-cluster --num-nodes=3

    • It may take several minutes for the cluster to be created. Once the command is complete, run the following command to see the cluster’s three worker VM instances: gcloud compute instances list

  2. Deploy the application to the cluster. Use the kubectl command-line tool to deploy and manage applications on a Kubernetes Engine cluster. You can create a simple nginx docker container, for example, using the following command (camilia-nginx is the name for the deployment): kubectl run camilia-nginx --image=nginx --port 80