Amazon EKS — NLB Services

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NLB Services

The Network Load Balancer (NLB) operates at Layer 4 (TCP/UDP). It handles millions of requests per second with ultra-low latency. Use NLB for non-HTTP workloads.

Create NLB Service

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: my-nlb
  annotations:
    service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-type: external
    service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-nlb-target-type: ip
    service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-scheme: internet-facing
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    app: web
  ports:
    - port: 80
      targetPort: 8080
      protocol: TCP

ALB vs NLB

Feature ALB NLB
Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) 4 (TCP/UDP)
Path routing ✅ Yes ❌ No
SSL termination ✅ Yes ✅ Yes (TLS)
WebSocket ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Static IP ❌ No ✅ Yes (Elastic IP)
Ultra-low latency No ✅ Yes
Cost ~$18/month + LCU ~$18/month + NLCU
Best for HTTP APIs, websites TCP services, gRPC, gaming

Common Mistakes

Mistake Impact
Using ALB for TCP/UDP workloads ALB only supports HTTP/HTTPS
NLB for HTTP path routing NLB can’t do path-based routing
Missing external type annotation Gets legacy Classic LB

What’s Next?

HTTPS setup: SSL/TLS Termination.

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