Backend Sets for Load Balancers

Use backend sets to create logical entities consisting of a load balancing policy, health check policy, and a list of backend servers for a load balancer.

A backend set is a logical entity defined by a load balancing policy, a health check policy, and a list of backend servers. To create a backend set, you must specify a load balancing policy and health check script, and then add a list of backend servers (compute instances). SSL (HTTPS) and session persistence configuration is optional. A backend set must be associated with one or more listeners for the load balancer to work.

See Limits on Load Balancing Resources for information on how many backend sets you can have with a load balancer.

Changing the load balancing policy of a backend set temporarily interrupts traffic and can drop active connections.

Click Backend Sets under Resources in the load balancer's Details page to display the Backend sets page. This page contains a button for creating new backend sets.

Note

You can set up backend servers as compute instance pools. See Creating Instance Pools for more information.

You can perform the following backend set management tasks: