The concept of server cluster IP
First, let's understand what server cluster IP is. In a server cluster, multiple servers provide services to the outside world at the same time. In order for external requests to reach these servers correctly, we need to assign an IP address to each server. This IP address can be an intranet IP or an external IP. The key is to be able to uniquely identify this server.
In the process of building a server cluster, we usually adopt a load balancing strategy to ensure that each server can get a balanced request distribution. The concept of server cluster IP is proposed to make load balancing work properly.
For example, if we have 3 servers, their IP addresses are 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3, then we can use load balancing to distribute external requests to these 3 servers according to a certain algorithm. External users only need to know a unified IP address, such as 192.168.1.0, to access this server cluster. This is the role of server cluster IP.
The role and configuration of reverse proxy
Next, let's talk about reverse proxy. Reverse proxy means that the proxy server receives the client's request, then forwards the request to the server on the internal network, and returns the result obtained from the server to the client. Its function is to hide the real server, and it can also play the role of load balancing and cache acceleration.
In the actual configuration process, we usually use some special software to implement reverse proxy, such as Nginx, Apache, etc. Here I take Nginx as an example to introduce the basic configuration of reverse proxy.
First, we need to install Nginx software and edit the configuration file. Suppose we have an application server with an IP address of 192.168.1.10 and a port of 8080. We can configure the reverse proxy like this:
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com;
location / {
proxy_pass http://192.168.1.10:8080;
}
}
In this configuration, we forward the request from example.com to 192.168.1.10:8080 through the reverse proxy. In this way, when external users visit example.com, they will be proxied to the internal application server without directly exposing the IP address and port of the application server.
Through such configuration, we can not only realize the function of reverse proxy, but also make some advanced configurations, such as load balancing, cache settings, etc.
Summary
Through the introduction of this article, I hope everyone has a clearer understanding of server cluster IP and reverse proxy. Server cluster IP is a concept proposed to enable load balancing to work properly, while reverse proxy is an important means to hide the real server, realize load balancing and cache acceleration.