In order to make a cluster of servers appear as one server, you need to introduce a load balancer. A load balancer will accept a request, and redirect it to one of the members of the cluster depending on a given configuration. A web server such as NGINX or Apache can act as this load balancer as well as a reverse proxy, which allows the web server to load balance requests across the cluster, act as a termination point for SSL connections to reduce strain on the cluster, as well as cache server content for quicker access. In this blog, we will set up NGINX as a reverse proxy and secure it using SSL.

 

In the first of our series on migrating away from Oracle GlassFish Server, we will look at replacing the functionality of the Load Balancer Configurator, and its potential alternatives.

 

 This short blog post will show you how to use NGINX to load balance between 2 or more Payara Server instances using the sticky session.