Using Load Balancers

After creating a load-balancer, you can configure load balancer services on boxes, which will instruct the load-balancer to expose the box via a domain and path prefix.

Create a Load Balancer Service

Use the following command to expose a box via a load balancer:

dboxed box add-lb-service <box-name> --load-balancer=<lb-name> --hostname=<hostname> --port=<port> --path-prefix=<path-prefix>

The <port> specified in this command must be exposed to the sandbox network, which can be done via standard docker compose ports  inside the compose service definition.

The <hostname> is the hostname you want to expose the box to. You must set up DNS for this hostname outside Dboxed until Dboxed supports automatic DNS.

The <path-prefix> is the prefix of your service, allowing you to expose multiple boxes and services on the same hostname.

Updating a service

To update an existing load-balancer service, determine the ID first via:

dboxed box ls-lb-services <box-name>

This will output a table, including the ID field.

Then use this ID to update the load-balancer service:

dboxed box update-lb-service <box-name> <id> --hostname=<hostname> --port=<port> --path-prefix=<path-prefix>

All flags are optional and if omitted will leave the values unchanged.

Deleting a service

To delete a load-balancer service, run:

dboxed box rm-lb-service <box-name> <id>