Global and Local Load Balancing
Explore the critical differences between global server load balancing (GSLB) and local load balancing in distributed System Design. Analyze how DNS round-robin achieves GSLB, noting its limitations in failure recovery and traffic distribution. Understand the necessity of local load balancers for efficient resource utilization in data centers.
Introduction
Load balancing operates at two distinct scales: global and local.
Global server load balancing (GSLB): Distributes traffic across multiple geographic regions.
Local load balancing: Distributes traffic within a specific data center to improve resource efficiency and server utilization.
The following sections detail these techniques.
Global server load balancing
GSLB intelligently forwards global traffic to the optimal data center. Decisions are based on user location, server capacity, and data center health. For example, if a data center experiences a power or network failure, ...