Unified Load Balancer Configuration and Administration Guide, Release 2026.02

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ULB deployment architecture

Overview

This topic explains the ULB deployment architecture, including key components, workflows, requirements, and expected outcomes for technical implementation and operations.

The following diagram illustrates a typical deployment model of ULB.

Figure 1. Unified Load Balancer Deployment Architecture
Unified Load Balancer deployment architecture illustrating the integration between network interfaces and Kubernetes nodes.

ULB can be deployed both on-premises and cloud platform, providing a unified load-balancing abstraction that simplifies application usage and integration.

  • On-Premise:

    • The service integrates with on-premise environments featuring leaf-spine network architecture, leveraging BGP and BFD protocols for robust route advertisement and rapid path failure detection.

  • Cloud:

    • For public cloud deployments, the service publishes routes with equal priority to facilitate faster convergence during failure events and maintains balanced traffic distribution across worker nodes.

Note

Deployment of ULB on the cloud platform is not qualified in this release. Contact your Cisco account representative for more information.