I'm completely new to the concept of load balancing so i hope this question isn't a "stupid question" because i've been searching around and im having a hard time understanding this. So to my understanding, in order to load balance, i need a separate machine with an ip address i can direct all traffic to. I initially thought i needed to rent 3 dedicated servers, one for load balancing and the other two as backend servers. Would a dedicated server be too much for a load balancer or do hosting companies have special types of computers for that process?
Then i read somewhere else that i can install a load balance software in both of the two servers and configure it in a way that doesn't require me to rent another machine/dedicated server for load balancing.
So im a bit confuse on how to actually implement a load balancer and whether or not i need a dedicated server for the sole purpose of acting as a load balancing machine. Also, i was recommended to use HAproxy so i'll be heading that direction for load balancing.
Best Answer
As long as the actual loads can be serviced to your requirements, the systems servicing the loads do not need to be actual physical systems. Citrix and others have benchmarks which show that there are situations in which multiple virtual systems can outperform a single physical system with the same physical hardware.