The LiteSpeed Web ADC stack is HTTP/3 ready with the feature support enabled by default. Herewith, a public IP address is required to bypass the Shared Load Balancer and work directly with the server over HTTP/3.
The LiteSpeed Web ADC (Application Delivery Controller) is a high-performance HTTP load balancing solution. It not just distributes traffic but also improves the speed and reliability of the services on the backend. Such benefits are achieved through the implementation and support of the most innovative and efficient technologies required for load balancing, e.g. next-generation HTTP/3 (QUIC) transport protocol.
LiteSpeed Web ADC is suitable for the projects of any scale, being able to handle everyday traffic and seasonal spikes alike. This balancer will surely get the most of your application due to its numerous features.
Note: Being a commercial software, LiteSpeed Web Server cannot be distributed freely, i.e. requires the license to be applied to the platform. If working with this application server, you’ll be charged an additional fee for usage of the license mentioned above.
Get your own LiteSpeed Web ADC load balancer server at the CirrusGrid PaaS by following the steps below.
1. Log in and click the New Environment button at the top of the dashboard.
2. Configure the preferred topology via the opened wizard and choose LiteSpeed Web ADC as your load balancer.
Tip: You can apply some customization to your LiteSpeed ADC by adjusting some of the dedicated environment variables:
- JELASTIC_AUTOCONFIG - enables (enabled, by default) or disables (disabled) autoconfiguration of the LiteSpeed worker processes count based on the allocated RAM and number of CPU cores
- DEFAULT_CLUSTER - selects the load balancing type for requests' proxying (HTTP, AJP, FCGI, LSAPI). If working with some custom backends, this logic can be disabled (0, disabled, false)
- WP_PROTECT - configures an action for the WordPress Brute Force Attack Protection feature (off | on | drop | deny | throttle | captcha; off by default)
- WP_PROTECT_LIMIT - sets a limit for the WordPress Brute Force Attack Protection feature (0 | 1 | 2 - 1000; 10 by default)
Click Create to proceed.
3. If you click the Open in Browser button for the LiteSpeed balancer, one of the backend application servers will be automatically accessed.
4. To manage your load balancer, you can access its Admin Panel. Click the appropriate button in the Additionally list next to the layer (access credentials are sent via email after the node creation).
Note: There are some specifics while working with the CirrusGrid PaaS implementation of the LiteSpeed via the admin panel:
- to ensure container stability, the CirrusGrid-native redeploy feature should be used instead of the Actions > Version Manager functionality
- the notification about the license key expiration in the Actions > Server Log Viewer should be ignored as the leasing is automatically managed by the platform
In case you need to adjust any of the configuration files, you can work over the dashboard file manager.
License Pricing #
Specifically for CirrusGrid PaaS, there was created a more flexible pricing model for LiteSpeed balancers that suits dynamic cloud environments. You are charged based on the network traffic processed by the node at the rate of 0.01$ per GB. Herewith, in case there was no traffic at all during an hour, the minimum fee for the license usage (0.01$) is charged.
The maximum total charge per month is 65$, i.e. any traffic over the 6500 GB is free of charge until the end of the month (the starting date is defined by the very first charge).
Note: Pricing may vary depending on the country and chosen service provider. Herewith, all the account charges can be viewed via the Billing History in the dashboard.
LiteSpeed ADC Testing #
When performing testing of the LiteSpeed Web ADC load balancer, you should take into consideration the following peculiarities:
1. By default, the load balancer operates in the Stateful mode, which tracks sessions associated with each back-end server (also called “Session Affinity”). It means that requests from a single source will always go to the same back-end server (unless it’s not working).
2. If LiteSpeed ADC does not have its own public IP, all the requests go through the platform’s Shared Load Balancer. In such a case, ADC considers that the load comes from a single IP address (of the Shared Load Balancer).
As a result, for the proper testing of the production cluster with LiteSpeed ADC as a load balancer, you need to attach public IP and send requests from multiple sources. Alternatively, you can temporarily switch to the Stateless mode, which does not care about sessions (recommended during the development/testing stages only). Check out more about LiteSpeed ADC testing at the official documentation.
