Creating a network load balancer

Written by

Yandex Cloud

Improved by

Danila N.

Updated at May 13, 2025

Examples
- Creating a network load balancer without a listener
- Creating a network load balancer with a listener and attached target group

Note

Before you create a network load balancer, make sure to create a target group for it.

You can only set the load balancer type (internal or external) when creating it and cannot change it later.

Management console

CLI

Terraform

API

To create a network load balancer:

In the management console, select the folder where you need to create a load balancer.
In the list of services, select Network Load Balancer.
Click Create a network load balancer.
Name the load balancer. Follow these naming requirements:
- It must be from 2 to 63 characters long.
- It may contain lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens.
- It must start with a letter and cannot end with a hyphen.
Assign a public IP address to the load balancer. You can have the IP address assigned automatically or select it from the list of reserved addresses.
Under Listeners, add a listener:
1. Click Add listener.
2. In the window that opens, specify these listener settings:
  - Name.
  - Protocol: TCP or UDP.
    
    Note
    
    By default, the listener uses TCP. To use UDP, contact technical support.
  - Port where the listener will listen for incoming traffic. The possible values range from 1 to 32767.
  - Target port to which the load balancer will redirect traffic. The possible values range from 1 to 32767.
3. Click Add.
Under Target groups, add a target group:
1. Click Add target group.
2. Select a target group or create a new one:
  - In the Target group field, select Create target group.
  - In the window that opens, enter a target group name.
  - Add VMs to the target group.
  - Click Create.
3. Optionally, under Health check, click Configure. In the window that opens, specify the resource health check settings:
  - Name.
  - Type: HTTP or TCP. For HTTP health checks, specify the URL in the Path field.
  - Port for health checks. The possible values range from 1 to 32767.
  - Timeout in sec: Response timeout in seconds. The possible values range from 1 to 60. The interval must be at least 1 second longer than the response timeout.
  - Interval in sec: Health check interval in seconds. The possible values range from 1 to 60.
  - Healthy threshold: Number of successful checks required to consider the VM ready to receive traffic.
  - Unhealthy threshold: Number of failed checks before traffic is no longer routed to the VM.
4. Click Apply.
Click Create.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud (CLI) command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified when creating the CLI profile is used by default. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

See the description of the CLI command for creating a network load balancer:
```
yc load-balancer network-load-balancer create --help
```
To create a load balancer with a listener and a target group, run this command:
```
yc load-balancer network-load-balancer create <load_balancer_name> \
   --listener name=<listener_name>,`
             `port=<port>,`
             `target-port=<target_port>,`
             `protocol=<protocol>,`
             `external-ip-version=<IP_address_version> \
   --target-group target-group-id=<target_group_ID>,`
                 `healthcheck-name=<health_check_name>,`
                 `healthcheck-interval=<health_check_interval>s,`
                 `healthcheck-timeout=<health_check_timeout>s,`
                 `healthcheck-unhealthythreshold=<number_of_failed_checks_to_get_Unhealthy_status>,`
                 `healthcheck-healthythreshold=<number_of_successful_checks_to_get_Healthy_status>,`
                 `healthcheck-tcp-port=<TCP_port>,`
                 `healthcheck-http-port=<HTTP_port>,`
                 `healthcheck-http-path=<URL>
```
Where:
- --listener: Listener settings:
  - name: Listener name.
  - port: Port on which the load balancer will listen to incoming traffic. The possible values range from 1 to 32767.
  - target-port: Port to which the load balancer will redirect traffic. The possible values range from 1 to 32767.
  - protocol: Protocol the listener will use, tcp or udp.
  - external-address: External IP address of the listener.
  - external-ip-version: External IP address version, ipv4 or ipv6.
- --target-group: Target group parameters and health check settings:
  - target-group-id: Target group ID.
    
    To find out the ID, get a list of target groups in the folder.
  - healthcheck-name: Health check name.
  - healthcheck-interval: Health check interval in seconds. The possible values range from 1s to 60s. The interval must be at least 1 second longer than the response timeout.
  - healthcheck-timeout: Response timeout in seconds. The possible values range from 1s to 60s.
  - healthcheck-unhealthythreshold: Number of failed checks before traffic is no longer routed to the VM. The possible values range from 2 to 10.
  - healthcheck-healthythreshold: Number of successful checks required to consider the VM ready to receive traffic. The possible values range from 2 to 10.
  - healthcheck-tcp-port: Port for TCP health checks. The possible values range from 1 to 32,767.
  - healthcheck-http-port: Port for HTTP health checks. The possible values range from 1 to 32,767.
  - healthcheck-http-path: URL for HTTP health checks.
  You cannot specify both healthcheck-tcp-port and healthcheck-http-port at the same time.
  
  Warning
  
  Use the <time_in_seconds>s format, e.g., 20s, for the healthcheck-interval and healthcheck-timeout values.

With Terraform, you can quickly create a cloud infrastructure in Yandex Cloud and manage it using configuration files. These files store the infrastructure description written in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). If you change the configuration files, Terraform automatically detects which part of your configuration is already deployed, and what should be added or removed.

Terraform is distributed under the Business Source License. The Yandex Cloud provider for Terraform is distributed under the MPL-2.0 license.

For more information about the provider resources, see the documentation on the Terraform website or mirror website.

If you do not have Terraform yet, install it and configure its Yandex Cloud provider.

Describe the network load balancer settings in the configuration file.

Here is an example of the configuration file structure:
```
resource "yandex_lb_network_load_balancer" "foo" {
  name = "<load_balancer_name>"
  deletion_protection = "<deletion_protection>"
  listener {
    name = "<listener_name>"
    port = <port_number>
    external_address_spec {
      ip_version = "<IP_address_version>"
    }
  }
  attached_target_group {
    target_group_id = "<target_group_ID>"
    healthcheck {
      name = "<health_check_name>"
      http_options {
        port = <port_number>
        path = "<URL>"
      }
    }
  }
}
```
Where:
- name: Name of the network load balancer.
- deletion_protection: Deletion protection for the network load balancer. You cannot delete a load balancer with this option enabled. This does not apply to its listeners or target groups. The default value is false.
- listener: Listener settings:
  - name: Listener name.
  - port: Port number (ranging from 1 to 32767) on which the load balancer will listen to incoming traffic.
  - external_address_spec: Specification of the listener for the external load balancer settings:
    - ip_version: External IP address specification. Specify the IP address version, ipv4 or ipv6. The default value is ipv4.
- attached_target_group: Description of the network load balancer's target group settings:
  - target_group_id: Target group ID.
    
    To find out the ID, get a list of target groups in the folder.
  - healthcheck: Health check settings. Specify a name, a port number ranging from 1 to 32767, and a path for health checks.
For more information about yandex_lb_network_load_balancer settings in Terraform, see this article.
Make sure the settings are correct.
1. In the command line, navigate to the directory that contains the current Terraform configuration files defining the infrastructure.
2. Run this command:
```
terraform validate
```
  Terraform will show any errors found in your configuration files.
Create a network load balancer.
1. Run this command to view the planned changes:
```
terraform plan
```
  If you described the configuration correctly, the terminal will display a list of the resources to update and their parameters. This is a verification step that does not apply changes to your resources.
2. If everything looks correct, apply the changes:
  1. Run this command:
```
terraform apply
```
  2. Confirm updating the resources.
  3. Wait for the operation to complete.

To create a new network load balancer, use the create REST API method for the NetworkLoadBalancer resource or the NetworkLoadBalancerService/Create gRPC API call.

Examples