Reverse Proxy
Learned in SE464.
One of two main types of load balancer (the other is a NAT load balancer).
Reverse proxy works at the HTTP layer. Example: Nginx.
Key difference from NAT
- Reverse proxies store full requests/responses before forwarding.
- NAT forwards packets one-by-one.
Because the proxy sees full HTTP messages, it can do content-based routing, caching, SSL termination, and request rewriting, but at the cost of more processing per request.
A load balancer like this creates a single point of contact for a large cluster of app servers. The work done is simple enough that one machine can relay requests for 10s–100s of application servers. Makes one IP address appear like one huge machine, but it’s actually a cluster.