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Overview

The Polystack Load Balancer service uses a controller-appliance model. The controller manages the lifecycle of load balancing appliances and translates API requests into configuration. The appliance processes all data-plane traffic — the controller does not handle production traffic. Understanding this architecture is essential for capacity planning, HA configuration, and troubleshooting.
Administrator Access Required — This operation requires the admin role. Contact your Polystack administrator if you do not have sufficient permissions.

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Service Topology

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Component Reference

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Data Plane vs Management Plane

Data plane

The data plane carries production application traffic from clients to backend members. All data plane traffic flows through the appliance instance directly:
  • Client → Floating IP → Appliance VIP → Backend Member
  • The controller is not in the data path
  • Appliance failure = service interruption (use ACTIVE_STANDBY topology for HA)
The management plane carries control traffic between the controller and appliances:
  • Configuration updates (new listeners, pool changes, member additions)
  • Health probe coordination
  • Appliance certificate management and renewal
  • TLS certificates on the management network prevent unauthorized appliance access

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High Availability Topologies

Configure the topology via a flavor profile. See Flavor Profiles.

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Deployment Considerations

The management network must provide enough IP addresses for all appliance instances plus spare capacity for concurrent provisioning. Size the management network DHCP pool at (max concurrent LBs) × 2 + 10 addresses.
Each load balancer appliance is a virtual machine consuming compute resources. In large deployments, ensure sufficient compute capacity is reserved for appliance instances. Consider a dedicated host aggregate for load balancer appliances.

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Next Steps

Provider Drivers

Configure the underlying load balancing implementation.

Flavor Profiles

Define appliance capacity tiers including HA topology selection.

Monitoring

Monitor appliance health and management plane connectivity.

Security

Secure the management network and appliance certificate lifecycle.