Provided by: balance_3.57-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       balance 3.54 - A simple TCP proxy with load balancing and failover mechanisms.

SYNOPSIS

       balance  [  -b  addr  ]  [  -B  addr  ]  [  -t  sec  ]  [  -T  sec  ]  [  -adfpHM6  ] port
       host1[:port1[:maxc]] [!|%] [ ... hostn[:portn[:maxc]]]

       balance [ -b addr ] -i [ -d ] [ -M ] port

       balance [ -b addr ] -c cmd [ -d ] [ -M ] port

DESCRIPTION

       Balance is a simple, generic "userland" TCP proxy, which allows  simple  round-robin  load
       balancing and graceful failover between several destination servers.

       Balance  supports  IPv6  on  the listening side which makes it a very useful tool for IPv6
       migration of IPv4 only services and servers.

       Balance is available at http://balance.sourceforge.net.

       Definitions: A possible destination consisting of a host address and a port  is  called  a
       "channel".   A  channel  is  member of a "channel group". Channels are numbered in a group
       starting with 0.  Groups are numbered starting with 0, which is the initial default group.

       Balance accepts connections on the given port and forwards them to the supplied  channels.
       At  least  one channel (in the default group) must be specified.  If there are two or more
       channels specified in a group balance performs a simple round-robin load balancing between
       the channels.

       Balance  allows  the  definition of further channel groups. The connection scheme works as
       follows: balance tries first to establish a connection to a channel  in  the  first  group
       (0),  performing  the  standard  round-robin  load balancing scheme. If no channel in this
       group is available, balance proceeds with the next higher channel group. Groups are simply
       separated  with  a  "!" at the command line at startup and can be controlled interactively
       with the "group" command.

       A "%" instead of a "!" as a group separator declares the previous  group  to  be  of  type
       "hash".   This means that instead of a round-robin algorithm, a hash distribution based on
       the client ip address is used to determine the destination channel. This allows connecting
       one client always to the same server (e.g. balancing http sessions to a single server).

       Hosts  may be specified either by hostname or by IP address. Ports may be specified either
       by name (as listed in /etc/services) or  numerically.   If  no  port  is  specified  in  a
       destination, the destination port defaults to the source port that balance controls.

       Balance  allows  the  specification of the maximum number of connections per channel. This
       parameter can be optionally added after the port specification separated by a colon (":").
       If  a  maximum  number  of  connections  is specified a channel will only be used for this
       maximum number of simultaneous connections. A maxc value of 0 denotes an unlimited  number
       of connections. This is the initial default value of a channel.

       The  maximum number of groups and channels balance can handle is specified at compile time
       and is initially 16 channels in 16 groups.

       Failover to another destination (a "channel") occurs if the connection is refused  on  the
       current  channel or if the connect timeout is reached trying to establish a connection. If
       all possible destinations (channels) currently fail, the client connection to  balance  is
       closed.

       Balance accepts the following options:

       6      Forces to bind on IPv6 socket by setting hints.ai_family to AF_INET6.

       a      Enable  autodisable  option:  A  channel  needs  to  be manually re-enabled after a
              failure.

       b      Bindhost: Balance binds to the specified host (or address) for listen() instead  to
              INADDR_ANY.

       B      Bindhost: Balance binds to the specified host (or address) for outgoing connections
              (the connection will be initiated from this address).

       c      Command: allows to send a command to the balance master  process  (see  interactive
              mode)

       d      Debug: Balance outputs debugging and tracing information messages on stderr.

       H      Hashfailover: Balance does failover to next node even if hash is used.

       F      Foreground:  tells  balance to stay in foreground. This might be useful for testing
              and debugging since balance can  be  stopped  in  that  mode  using  ^C  (or  other
              interrupt character).

       M      Use memory mapping for IPC instead of shared memory

       i      Interactive Control: Balance connects to the running instance defined by local port
              and bind address via shared memory and allows to control the behaviour of it  using
              a command line interface. The access permission using this interface are determined
              by the access restrictions of the shared memory  segment  in  effect.   help  or  ?
              prints  out  a  short  command  overview,  assign  allows  to  change the host_port
              assignment of a channel (only if  disabled),  create  allows  to  establish  a  new
              destination  definition (channel) consisting of host and port in the current group,
              disable disables a channel in the current group, enable enables a channel again  in
              the  current  group,  group changes the current group in interactive mode where all
              following commands are targeted, hash changes the  current  group  to  be  of  type
              "Hash",  help  prints  out  online  help  informations,  kill shuts down the master
              process and exits interactive mode, maxc <channel> <maxc> sets the  maximum  number
              of  connection  ot  the  channel  (0  means infinite), mrtg-bytes <group> <channel>
              prints out the bytes received/sent in MRTG compatible format (intended to be called
              with  -c  automatically by MRTG), mrtg-conns <group> <channel> prints out the total
              connections in MRTG compatible format (intended to be called with -c  automatically
              by  MRTG),  quit  exits  the  interactive mode, reset resets the byte counters of a
              channel, rr changes the current group to be of type "Round Robin",  show  shows  an
              overview  and  the  status  of  all  channels  including  the incoming and outgoing
              transfer volume in bytes. The output is sorted by groups. Additionally the  current
              connections  (c)  and  the  maximum allowed connections (maxc) are printed, version
              prints out the version and MAXGROUPS and MAXCHANNELS constants at compile time.

       p      Packetdump: Balance shows all incoming and outgoing data on stdout using  a  simple
              always  readable  external  representation  of  data.   This  might  be  useful for
              debugging and protocol analysis.

       t      Connect Timeout: the default timeout  trying  to  establish  a  connection  to  any
              destination  can  be  changed  using this option. The default timeout after which a
              destination is regarded to be currently inaccessible is 5 seconds.

       T      Select Timeout: Timeout  for  select(),  default  =  0  (never).  This  feature  is
              currently untested.

EXAMPLES

       $ balance smtp host1.test.net host2.test.net
              Connection  to the local SMTP port will be forwarded alterating to the SMTP port on
              host1 and host2.  Balance runs automatically in background.

       $ balance -b 2001:DB8::1 80 10.1.1.1 10.1.1.2
              Balance binds on port 80 of the local IPv6 IP address 2001:DB8::1  and  distributes
              connections to the IPv4 addresses 10.1.1.1 and 10.1.1.2.

       $ balance -b ::ffff:10.1.1.3 80 10.1.1.1 10.1.1.2
              Balance  binds  on  port 80 of the local IPv4 IP address 10.1.1.3 (provided in IPv6
              notation) and distributes connections to the IPv4 addresses 10.1.1.1 and 10.1.1.2.

       $ balance -fp imap mailserver
              Connections  to  the  local  IMAP  port  will  always  be  forwarded  to  the  host
              "mailserver".   Balance  stays  in  foreground  and all data is printed in readable
              format on stdout.

       $ balance -f 8888 host1 10.1.1.1:8000
              Connections to the local port 8888 are forwarded alternating to  host1,  port  8888
              and  the  host  10.1.1.1,  port 8000.  Balance stays in foreground connected to the
              "controlling tty".

       $ balance imap mailserver1::16 ! mailserver2
              Two groups are specified, each containing  one  channel  member.  First  up  to  16
              simultaneous  connections  are  forwarded  to  "mailserver1".  As  soon as they are
              consumed, balance proceeds with the next group (1) which will consume all remaining
              connections forwarding them to the imap ort on "mailserver2".

       $ balance pop3 host1 host2 host3 ! failover1
              Balance  does round robin load balancing for the three hosts in the default group 0
              for pop3 services. If all three hosts in group 0 fail,  all  connections  are  then
              forwarded to the host "failover1".

       $ balance telnet target.munich.net::1
              Here  balance  is  used  to  restrict  all  connections  to  exactly  one at a time
              forwarding the telnet port.

       $ balance 8888 localhost::12 ! localhost::4 ! localhost::2 localhost::2 ! localhost:25
              This is a simple test, forming 5 groups where balance is self referencing  its  own
              services 20 times. This is simply a test which definitely can be tried at home.

BUGS

       In  case  that balance is not able to forward the connection to any destination the inital
       connection to balance is always first accepted and then closed again immediately. This  is
       not  in  every  case  the  behaviour that would have been seen directly on the destination
       host.

AUTHOR

       Thomas Obermair, Inlab Software GmbH (obermair@acm.org)

       Copyright (c) 2000-2009,2010 by Thomas Obermair (obermair@acm.org) and Inlab Software GmbH
       (http://www.inlab.de), Gruenwald, Germany.  All rights reserved.

       Balance  is  released  under  the  GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, see the file COPYING in the
       source code distribution.

                                           03 Dec 2010                                 BALANCE(1)