This topic describes the release notes for Server Load Balancer (SLB) and provides links to the relevant references.
January 2024
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Network Load Balancer (NLB) available in more regions | Update | NLB is available in the China (Heyuan) and SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) regions. | |
Application Load Balancer (ALB) available in more regions | Update | ALB is available in the China (Heyuan) region. |
December 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
ALB available in more zones | Update | ALB is available in Zone C of the China (Shenzhen) region. | |
ALB monitoring data by zone | Update | Monitoring data of ALB can be queried by zone. You can query and analyze the monitoring metrics of ALB in each zone. Each zone is assigned a virtual IP address (VIP). |
November 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
NLB available in more regions | Update | NLB is available in the China (Ulanqab), Thailand (Bangkok), and Philippines (Manila) regions. | |
NLB monitoring data by zone | Update | Monitoring data of NLB can be queried by zone. You can query and analyze the monitoring metrics of NLB in each zone. Each zone is assigned a virtual IP address (VIP). | |
ALB quota usage and alert rules | New feature | ALB quota usage and alert rules are supported. You can create alert rules that are triggered by quota usage or remaining quota usage for ALB. | |
Assignment of private IP addresses to ALB in OpenAPI Explorer | New feature | OpenAPI Explorer can be used to create Internet-facing or internal-facing ALB instances and assign private IP addresses to ALB instances. You can assign an IPv4 address from the CIDR block of each vSwitch of the ALB instance as a private IP address of the ALB. | Use OpenAPI Explorer to create an ALB instance and assign private IP addresses |
October 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
NLB instance diagnostics | New feature | NLB is interfaced with Network Intelligent Service (NIS), which supports instance diagnostics. The instance diagnostics feature can diagnose the configurations and status of instances, generate diagnostic reports, and provide suggestions on how to fix anomalies. |
September 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Simulation of ALB cross-zone disaster recovery | New feature | Simulation of cross-zone disaster recovery is supported by ALB. You can remove and restore DNS records for a zone to simulate cross-zone disaster recovery for ALB. | |
Quick migration of Layer 7 listeners from Classic Load Balancer (CLB) to ALB | New feature | ALB supports stronger Layer 7 load balancing capability and more advanced routing features than CLB. Quick migration of Layer 7 listeners from CLB to ALB is supported. |
July 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
NLB available in more regions | Update | NLB is available in the India (Mumbai) and Indonesia (Jakarta) regions. | |
Simulation of cross-zone disaster recovery and VIP probes for NLB | New feature | Simulation of cross-zone disaster recovery is supported by NLB. You can simulate cross-zone disaster recovery by removing and restoring DNS records in the zones of your NLB instances. You can also probe the availability of the VIP in a zone that is in the Enabled state. | |
Additional certificates for NLB | New feature | Additional certificates can be added to NLB listeners that use SSL over TCP. This meets the requirements of scenarios in which multiple domain names are accessed or multiple server certificates are used. | |
Queries per second (QPS) throttling for ALB based on client IP addresses | Update | QPS throttling based on client IP addresses is supported by ALB. You can use this feature to implement fine-grained QPS throttling. | |
HTTP/3 for ALB | New feature | HTTP/3 is supported by ALB. HTTP/3 is a new standard web protocol based on the iQUIC protocol. HTTP/3 reduces the web page loading time, reduces video rebuffering, improves the throughput of high-latency connections, and provides ultra-low latency for Internet services. | |
ALB HTTPS health checks | Update | HTTPS health checks are supported by ALB. Health checks that use HTTPS, an end-to-end encryption protocol, can detect the status of backend services in a more accurate manner and improve the security of services. |
June 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
NLB available in more regions | Update | NLB is available in the South Korea (Seoul) and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) regions. |
May 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
NLB available in more regions | Update | NLB is available in the following regions: China (Guangzhou), Japan (Tokyo), US (Virginia), and US (Silicon Valley). | |
Advanced security groups for NLB | Update | A larger number of private IP addresses is supported by advanced security groups. NLB instances can be added to advanced security groups, which support a larger number of private IP addresses. | |
Managed Service for Prometheus for ALB | New feature | ALB is interfaced with Managed Service for Prometheus. You can view the monitoring data of ALB by using the metrics, dashboards, and alerts provided by Managed Service for Prometheus. |
April 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Operation logs for NLB | New feature | NLB is integrated with ActionTrail. You can query events generated within the last 90 days or 90 days ago in multiple regions in the NLB console. | |
Fine-grained monitoring for ALB | Update | Metrics are collected every second and are recorded in the access logs of ALB. You can query the metrics to identify exceptions that are related to network jitters. | |
Advanced features of ALB Ingresses | Update |
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March 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Elastic IP addresses (EIPs) protected by Anti-DDoS Pro/Premium for NLB | New feature | EIPs that are protected by Anti-DDoS Pro/Premium can be associated with NLB instances. The NLB instances can use the EIPs to access the Internet in a secure manner. You can associate an EIP protected by Anti-DDoS Pro/Premium with an NLB instance when you create an NLB instance or when you change the network type of an NLB instance. EIPs protected by Anti-DDoS Pro/Premium can mitigate DDoS attacks at the Tbit/s level, and are ideal for scenarios that require high security and low latency. | |
Instance diagnostics for ALB | New feature | ALB is interfaced with Network Intelligence Service (NIS) and provides the instance diagnostics feature. The instance diagnostics feature can diagnose the configurations and running status of instances, generate diagnostic reports, and provide suggestions on how to fix anomalies. |
February 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
User guide for migration of Layer 7 listeners from CLB to ALB | New feature | Compared with CLB, ALB provides better load balancing capabilities at Layer 7 and provides more advanced routing features. A user guide is provided to help you migrate services from a Layer 7 listener of CLB to ALB. This way, ALB provides services at Layer 7 instead of CLB. | |
EIPs protected by Anti-DDoS Pro/Premium for ALB | New feature | EIPs that are protected by Anti-DDoS Pro/Premium can be associated with ALB instances. The ALB instances can use the EIPs to access the Internet in a secure manner. You can associate an EIP protected by Anti-DDoS Pro/Premium with an ALB instance when you create an ALB instance or change the network type of an ALB instance. EIPs protected by Anti-DDoS Pro/Premium can mitigate DDoS attacks at the Tbit/s level, and are ideal for scenarios that require high security and low latency. | |
More services can be integrated with ALB by using ALB Ingresses | Update |
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Quota Center for NLB | New feature | NLB is integrated with Quota Center. You can apply for and view the general quotas of NLB in the Quota Center console. |
January 2023
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Troubleshooting | New feature | The troubleshooting feature is provided to help you troubleshoot instance status issues, access issues, and health check exceptions. This feature helps you monitor the status of SLB instances and identify and resolve issues in a timely manner. |
December 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Security groups for NLB | New feature | NLB instances can be added to security groups. An NLB instance can be added to a security group to allow or deny access from the NLB instance to the Internet or private networks. | |
Mutual authentication for NLB listeners that use SSL over TCP | Update | Mutual authentication is supported by NLB listeners that use SSL over TCP. | |
Quota Center for ALB | New feature | ALB is integrated with Quota Center. You can apply for and view general quotas and privileges of ALB in the Quota Center console. |
November 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
NLB available for commercial use | New feature | The public preview and time-limited free trial of NLB have ended. NLB is available for commercial use. | [November 8, 2022] Announcement on the commercialization of NLB |
Listening by port range for NLB | Update | Listening by port range is supported by NLB. After you enable this feature, NLB can listen on all ports in the specified port range. | |
Terraform for NLB | Update | Terraform can be used to create and manage NLB instances. | |
Anycast EIPs for NLB | New feature | Anycast EIPs can be associated with NLB instances to enable the NLB instances to provide services over the Internet. To associate an Anycast EIP with an NLB instance, you can change the network type of the NLB instance. | |
Source code of ALB Ingresses available on GitHub | Update | ALB Ingresses are compatible with NGINX Ingresses, and provide improved traffic routing capabilities based on ALB. ALB Ingresses support complex routing, automatic certificate discovery, and the HTTP, HTTPS, and QUIC protocols. In scenarios where you deploy cloud-native applications in self-managed Kubernetes clusters, ALB Ingresses support ultra-high elasticity and balancing of heavy traffic loads at Layer 7. |
October 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Anycast EIPs for ALB | New feature | Anycast EIPs can be associated with ALB instances to enable the ALB instances to provide services over the Internet. To associate an Anycast EIP with an ALB instance, you can change the network type of the ALB instance. | |
Region list of WAF-enabled ALB instances | Update | Descriptions of and region information about WAF-enabled ALB instances are provided. A user guide is provided to help you create and manage WAF-enabled ALB instances. | |
Traffic mirroring to ALB server groups of the IP type | Update | A forwarding rule can be added to a listener of ALB to mirror traffic to a server group of the IP type. | |
Proxy protocol for NLB client IP address retrieval. | New feature | The Proxy protocol is supported by NLB to pass client IP addresses to backend servers. | |
On-premises servers as NLB backend servers | New feature | Backend servers can be specified by IP address for a server group of NLB. You can use NLB and CEN transit routers to enable NLB to forward requests to servers in a data center. |
September 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
IPv6 for ALB | New feature | IPv6 is supported by ALB. You can purchase a dual-stack ALB instance and configure server groups and listeners to forward traffic from IPv6 clients to IPv4 and IPv6 backend services. |
August 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Advanced features of ALB Ingresses | Update | Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS), persistent TCP connections, and QPS throttling are supported by ALB Ingresses. |
July 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
NLB public preview | New feature | NLB is in public preview. NLB instances are next-generation Layer 4 load balancers developed by Alibaba Cloud for Internet of Everything (IoE) services. NLB is free of charge during the public preview. | |
ALB consistent hashing based on URLs | Update | Consistent hashing based on URLs is supported by ALB. Requests destined for the same URL are forwarded to the same backend server. | |
CORS for ALB forwarding rules | Update | CORS is supported by forwarding rules of ALB. If the response is returned from a URL different from the URL requested by the client, CORS is triggered. The URL includes a protocol, a domain name, and a port. | |
Regular expressions as conditions of domain name-based and URL-based forwarding rules of ALB | New feature | Domain name-based and URL-based forwarding rules are supported by ALB listeners. You can specify a regular expression as the condition of a domain name-based forwarding rule or a URL-based forwarding rule. You can also specify a regular expression in the URL for a rewrite or redirect action. |
June 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Google Remote Procedure Call (gRPC) for ALB | New feature | The gRPC protocol can be used by ALB to provide load balancing services. If gRPC is used, only frontend data transmission is encrypted and backend data is transmitted in plaintext. After you create a gRPC server group for an ALB instance, associate the server group with an HTTPS listener, and enable HTTP/2 and health checks, the ALB instance can forward gRPC requests to the gRPC server group. | |
WAF-enabled ALB instances | Update | WAF-enabled ALB instances are available. As an upgrade from standard ALB instances, WAF-enabled ALB instances are integrated with Web Application Firewall (WAF) 3.0 to protect your web applications. Network traffic is filtered by WAF before it is routed to ALB listeners. | |
WAF for ALB Ingresses | New feature | WAF is an all-in-one service that protects your websites and applications. You can use WAF to prevent data breaches, HTTP flood attacks, webshells, and web page tampering. WAF also provides virtual patches. After you enable WAF for an ALB Ingress, network traffic is filtered by WAF before it is routed to ALB listeners. | None. |
March 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
Functions of Function Compute as backend servers of ALB | New feature | Functions of Function Compute can be specified as backend servers of ALB. ALB can be configured to forward requests from ALB to Function Compute. | Specify a function from Function Compute as a backend server of ALB |
February 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
gRPC protocol for ALB Ingresses | New feature | The gRPC protocol is supported by ALB Ingresses. To use gRPC, add the annotation | |
ALB Ingress deployment based on ASK Knative. | New feature | Knative is an open source and serverless application framework. Knative can help you deploy serverless workloads to Kubernetes and manage the workloads. ALB is a load balancing service intended for applications that use the HTTP, HTTPS, or Quick UDP Internet Connection (QUIC) protocol. ALB is highly scalable and can distribute large amounts of network traffic at Layer 7. ASK allows you to deploy ALB Ingresses based on Knative. |
January 2022
Feature | Type | Description | References |
ECS instances in different regions as ALB backend servers | New feature | Backend servers can be specified for server groups of ALB by IP address. Requests received by ALB can be routed to servers in other regions by using CEN transit routers. | Specify an ECS instance in a VPC as a backend server of ALB in a different region |
On-premises servers as ALB backend servers | New feature | Backend servers can be added to the server groups of ALB by IP address. Requests received by ALB can be routed to on-premises servers by using CEN transit routers and other services. | Add on-premises servers to an ALB instance within the same region |
November 2021
Feature | Description | References |
ALB Ingress creation in the ACK console | ALB Ingresses can be created in the ACK console. You can create Ingress rules for ALB Ingresses and customize Ingress configurations. ALB Ingresses use ALB instances to balance traffic loads at Layer 7. | |
A higher level of service uptime guaranteed by ALB instances that support multi-zone deployment | The service uptime guaranteed by ALB instances that support multi-zone deployment is increased from 99.95% to 99.995%. |
October 2021
Feature | Description | References |
ALB Ingresses | ALB Ingresses are compatible with NGINX Ingresses, and provide improved traffic routing capabilities based on ALB instances. ALB Ingresses support complex routing, automatic certificate discovery, and the HTTP, HTTPS, and QUIC protocols. In scenarios where you deploy cloud-native applications in ACK or ASK clusters, ALB Ingresses meet the requirements for ultra-high elasticity and balancing of heavy traffic loads at Layer 7. |
September 2021
Feature | Description | References |
ALB subscription resource plans | Subscription resource plans are provided by ALB. After an ALB resource plan takes effect, it automatically offsets the Load Balancer Capacity Unit (LCU) fees and instance fees for ALB. Compared with the pay-as-you-go billing method, ALB resource plans are more cost-effective. You can specify the time when you want a resource plan to take effect as needed. ALB resource plans are suitable for enterprises on a fixed budget. |
August 2021
Feature | Description | References |
Internet Shared Bandwidth for ALB | An existing EIP and an Internet Shared Bandwidth instance can be associated with an ALB instance when you create the ALB instance. After the ALB instance is associated with an Internet Shared Bandwidth instance, the ALB instance shares the bandwidth of the Internet Shared Bandwidth instance with other ALB instances. This reduces bandwidth costs. |
July 2021
Feature | Description | References |
Proxy protocol for CLB client IP address retrieval | Proxy Protocol can be used by Layer 4 listeners of CLB to pass client IP addresses to backend servers. After Proxy Protocol is enabled, CLB adds a TCP header to the request without modifying the existing headers. The TCP header carries information such as the source IP address, destination IP address, source port, and destination port. |
March 2021
Feature | Description | References |
Mutual authentication for ALB | Mutual authentication is supported by HTTPS listeners of ALB. | |
Outbound forwarding rules for ALB | Inbound and outbound forwarding rules are supported by ALB. |
January 2021
Feature | Description | References |
Optimized monitoring for CLB | The monitoring feature of CLB is optimized. By default, the health check data of forwarding rules is no longer displayed. |
October 2020
Feature | Description | References |
ALB public preview | A free trial for ALB, a load balancing service intended for Layer 7, is available. |
July 2019
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Health checks | TCP UDP HTTP HTTPS | |
Overview page in SLB console | TCP UDP HTTP HTTPS | - |
June 2019
Feature | Supported listener | References |
UDP and TCP listeners that belong to the same SLB instance and listen on the same port available in more regions | TCP UDP | |
Secondary IP addresses of ENIs for ECS instances | UDP TCP HTTP HTTPS |
May 2019
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Port listening by both a UDP and a TCP listener within the same SLB instance | UDP TCP | |
Elliptic curve keys | HTTPS | |
TLS 1.3 | HTTPS | |
GET method for health checks of Layer 7 listeners | HTTPS HTTP |
April 2019
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Query of available resources in zones by API calls | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP | |
IPv6 | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
January 2019
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Idle instance management | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
November 2018
Feature | Supported listener | References |
HTTP-to-HTTPS redirection | HTTP |
October 2018
Feature | Supported listener | References |
ENIs of ECS instances as backend servers | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
September 2018
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Certificates provided by Certificate Management Service | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP | |
IPv6 | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP | |
Advanced features, including custom scheduling algorithms, session persistence, and health checks, for forwarding rules | HTTP HTTPS |
August 2018
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Batch modifications of ports and weights for multiple backend servers | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
July 2018
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Query of resource quotas by API calls | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP | - |
Console upgrades on Alibaba Cloud China site | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP | |
Consistent hashing algorithms, QUIC protocol, and UDP session persistence for Layer 4 listeners | UDP TCP |
June 2018
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Custom TLS versions | HTTPS | |
IPv6 | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
May 2018
Feature | Supported listener | References |
HTTP/2 | HTTPS | |
Server Name Indication (SNI) that allows multiple certificates to be associated with SLB | HTTPS | Configure a CLB instance to serve multiple domain names over HTTPS |
Blacklists and whitelists | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP | |
Access logs | HTTP HTTPS | |
ENIs of ECS instances as backend servers (by calling OpenAPI Explorer) | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
April 2018
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Custom timeout periods for Layer 7 listeners | HTTP HTTPS |
February 2018
Feature | Supported listener | References |
WebSocket and WebSocket Secure | HTTP HTTPS | |
HTTP/2 | HTTPS |
November 2017
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Alibaba Cloud Security thresholds of SLB instances | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP | |
High-performance CLB instances | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
August 2017
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Layer 7 monitoring metrics such as QPS | HTTP HTTPS | |
Custom timeout periods for Layer 4 listeners | TCP | |
Bandwidth sharing between listeners of an SLB instance | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
February 2017
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Primary/secondary server groups | UDP TCP |
November 2016
Feature | Supported listener | References |
HTTP headers | HTTP HTTPS |
March 2016
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Domain name-based and URL-based forwarding rules | HTTP HTTPS |
December 2015
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Cross-zone deployment | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
July 2015
Feature | Supported listener | References |
HTTP health checks for TCP listeners | TCP |
April 2015
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Virtual private clouds (VPCs) | HTTPS HTTP UDP TCP |
January 2015
Feature | Supported listener | References |
HTTPS | HTTPS |
February 2014
Feature | Supported listener | References |
Release of SLB | HTTP TCP |