Explanation
Why the waste happens and who it affects.
If traffic is low, or if only one backend server is configured, the load balancer may be oversized or unnecessary, especially in test or staging environments.
Billing model
The pricing dimensions that drive this cost.
Flexible load balancers are charged per load balancer-hour for the base instance plus bandwidth per Mbps per hour. Bandwidth is billed at the configured minimum bandwidth, or actual usage when it is higher, so an oversized minimum shape is billed even when traffic is low.
How to detect
4 checks to find it in your estate.
- Review traffic metrics to assess actual vs. provisioned throughput
- Identify load balancers with only one or inactive backend servers
- Check for load balancers in non-production environments with little to no usage
- Evaluate whether an OCI Network Load Balancer (Layer 3/4, no charge) or direct instance access is more appropriate
How to fix
3 ways to remove the waste.
- Lower the minimum bandwidth of flexible load balancers, or move legacy fixed shapes to a flexible shape with a smaller minimum
- Decommission underutilized load balancers
- Consolidate redundant load balancers across applications or environments
Documentation
Vendor references for pricing and configuration.
