Your first route.

01. Install the binary

OpenLoadBalancer runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. The upstream installers select a release binary for your platform. Review the shell script or PowerShell script before running it.

curl -fsSL https://openloadbalancer.dev/install.sh | sh

irm https://openloadbalancer.dev/install.ps1 | iex

Prefer a manual installation? Download the matching binary from GitHub Releases and add it to your PATH. Homebrew users can run:

brew tap openloadbalancer/olb
brew install olb

02. Define a backend pool

Save the configuration below as olb.yaml. It listens on port 8080 and distributes traffic between two local services. Replace the example addresses with reachable backends that return a successful response on /health.

01version: 102 03admin:04  address: "127.0.0.1:9090"05 06listeners:07  - name: http08    protocol: http09    address: ":8080"10    routes:11      - name: default12        path: /13        pool: backend14 15pools:16  - name: backend17    algorithm: round_robin18    health_check:19      type: http20      path: /health21      interval: 10s22      timeout: 5s23    backends:24      - id: backend-125        address: "127.0.0.1:7091"26      - id: backend-227        address: "127.0.0.1:7092"

The configuration structure follows the product repository’s minimal configuration. YAML, JSON, TOML, and HCL formats are supported, including environment-variable substitution. Use olb setup for the interactive configuration wizard.

03. Validate and start

olb config validate --config olb.yaml
olb start --config olb.yaml

With your backend services running, make a request through the listener:

curl -i http://localhost:8080/

Visit http://127.0.0.1:9090 on the same machine for the admin interface. If a backend is unavailable, health checks remove it from rotation until it recovers.

04. Keep a clear view

The CLI exposes operational commands without requiring you to build another dashboard. Use the upstream API reference for programmatic integrations.

olb status --api-addr localhost:9090
olb backend list --api-addr localhost:9090
olb health show --api-addr localhost:9090
olb reload --api-addr localhost:9090

For automated monitoring, connect Prometheus metrics and structured JSON logs. The built-in MCP server lets compatible AI tools inspect metrics, diagnose issues, and manage backends. Configure authentication and audit logging before enabling management access.

05. Before production

• Configure TLS termination, ACME certificates, or mTLS for your environment.
• Keep admin and MCP interfaces restricted to trusted networks and configure authentication.
• Set appropriate health-check intervals, timeouts, and request limits.
• Choose a balancing algorithm that matches your workload and test with your traffic.
• Review observability, graceful draining, and clustering in the production deployment guide.

Published benchmark results describe the upstream test environment. Measure latency, throughput, and resource use on your own hardware before capacity planning.

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