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name: configuring-load-balancers description: | Configure use when configuring load balancers including ALB, NLB, Nginx, and HAProxy. Trigger with phrases like "configure load balancer", "create ALB", "setup nginx load balancing", or "haproxy configuration". Generates production-ready configurations with health checks, SSL termination, sticky sessions, and traffic distribution rules. allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, Bash(aws:), Bash(gcloud:), Bash(nginx:*) version: 1.0.0 author: Jeremy Longshore jeremy@intentsolutions.io license: MIT

Configuring Load Balancers

Overview

This skill provides automated assistance for the described functionality.

Prerequisites

Before using this skill, ensure:

• Backend servers are identified with IPs or DNS names
• Load balancer type is determined (ALB, NLB, Nginx, HAProxy)
• SSL certificates are available if using HTTPS
• Health check endpoints are defined
• Understanding of traffic distribution requirements (round-robin, least-connections)
• Cloud provider CLI installed (if using cloud load balancers)

Instructions

1. Select Load Balancer Type: Choose based on requirements (L4 vs L7, cloud vs on-prem)
2. Define Backend Pool: List backend servers with ports and weights
3. Configure Health Checks: Set check interval, timeout, and healthy threshold
4. Set Up SSL/TLS: Configure certificates and cipher suites
5. Define Routing Rules: Create path-based or host-based routing
6. Enable Session Persistence: Configure sticky sessions if needed
7. Add Monitoring: Set up logging and metrics collection
8. Test Configuration: Validate syntax and test traffic distribution

Output

Nginx Configuration:

# {baseDir}/nginx/load-balancer.conf

## Error Handling

See `{baseDir}/references/errors.md` for comprehensive error handling.

## Examples

See `{baseDir}/references/examples.md` for detailed examples.

## Resources

- Nginx documentation: https://nginx.org/en/docs/
- HAProxy configuration guide: https://www.haproxy.org/
- AWS ALB documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/
- GCP Load Balancing: https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs
- Example configurations in {baseDir}/lb-examples/