EchidnaLB

EchidnaLB is a layer 7 load-balancer for HTTP backend servers written in Rust.

Features

• HTTP1.1 & HTTP2

  • Supports both HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 protocols, ensuring compatibility and performance for modern web applications.

• IPv4 & IPv6 Listeners

  • Supports both IPv4 & IPv6 listeners for greater network flexibility.

• Multiple Load Balancing Algorithms:

  • Round Robin
  • Weighted Round Robin
  • IP Hashing
  • Least Connections
  • Least Latency

• Health Checks:

  • Optional configurable health checks to monitor backend server status.

• TLS Termination:

  • Optional support for HTTPS with configurable SSL certificates.

Installation

Build yourself

Requirements:

• Git
• Rust Toolchain

To build the project yourself, clone the project and build it using cargo:

git clone https://github.com/echidna-lb/echidna-lb.git
cd echidna-lb

cargo build # or `cargo build --release` for better performance
sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' target/debug/echidna-lb # (Optional) Allow to bind to port 80/443 without root

target/debug/echidna-lb --version

After that, you may want to add the binary to your PATH.

Grab the binary

You may download a pre-compiled binary from the GitHub release page.

Usage

By default, EchidnaLB binds to port 9000 (HTTP) and 9001 (HTTPS). If you wish to bind to the standard HTTP and HTTPS ports 80 and 443 respectively, on Linux, every port below 1024 is privileged so you either have to:

• run the program as root sudo
• use setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' /path/to/echidna-lb

Configuration file

A minimal configuration file is required. Example:

port: 9000
https_port: 9001 # optional
algorithm: "RoundRobin"
workers: 10 # optional

backends:
  - url: "http://127.0.0.1:8081"
    weight: 2 # optional
  - url: "http://127.0.0.1:8082"
    weight: 1 # optional

healthcheck: # optional
  interval_sec: 10 # optional
  route: "/health"

ssl: #optional
  cert_path: "cert.pem"
  key_path: "key.pem"

• port: The port on which the HTTP server listens. Defaults to 9000.
• https_port: (Optional) The port on which the HTTPS server listens. Defaults to 9001.
• algorithm: (Optional) The load balancing algorithm to use. Available options: RoundRobin, LeastConnections, WeightedRoundRobin, IPHashing and LeastLatency. Defaults to RoundRobin.
• workers: (Optional) The number of worker threads to be used by the server. Defaults to 10.
• backends: A list of backend servers with their URLs and weights (for weighted algorithms).
  • url: A backend endpoint URL.
  • weight: (Optional) The weight associated with the endpoint, only used for WeightedRoundRobin algorithm. Defaults to 1.
• healthcheck: (Optional) Configuration for periodic health checks.
  • route: The HTTP route on the backend server used for health checks.
  • interval_sec: (Optional) Interval in seconds between health checks. Defaults to 10.
• ssl: (Optional) SSL configuration for HTTPS.
  • cert_path: Path to the SSL certificate file.
  • key_path: Path to the SSL private key file.

Command line arguments

• --config <file>: Path to the YAML configuration file.

Example:

echidna-lb --config config.yaml

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request if you have suggestions or improvements.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.