Target Groups

Create and manage AWS Target Groups to control application traffic routing

Target Groups route traffic from a Load Balancer to specific backend resources, such as EC2 instances, IP addresses, ALBs, or Lambda functions. They’re helpful when you need precise control over traffic distribution, health check monitoring, or when consolidating traffic across multiple services behind a shared ALB.

Prerequisites

A Target Group routes traffic to one or more backend resources, which are the actual systems that process incoming requests. Before creating a Target Group, ensure the appropriate backend resource is already created.

Supported backend resource types include:

• EC2 Instances: Instances managed within DuploCloud.

• IP Addresses: Static IPs for known resources, such as external systems.

• Lambda Functions: Serverless functions deployed in AWS that can be invoked directly by an ALB Target Group.

• Internal ALBs (Application Load Balancers): ALBs created within DuploCloud. These must already exist and be configured appropriately. Supported internal ALBs include:

  • ALBs created under Networking → Load Balancer.

  • ALBs provisioned through Kubernetes → Ingress Load Balancer.

  • ALBs created via Kubernetes → Services or Docker → Services.

Step 1. Creating a Target Group

A Target Group defines how traffic is routed to backend resources. This is a required step before connecting a frontend ALB to internal services such as Kubernetes or Docker workloads.

Follow these steps to create a Target Group:

1. From the DuploCloud Portal, navigate to Cloud Services → Networking → Load Balancers.

2. Select the Target Groups tab.

3. Click Add. The Create Target Group pane displays.

   

   The Create Target Group pane

Port	Specify the port on which backend resources are listening (must be between 1 and 65535).
Protocol	Specify how traffic is routed to targets: Select HTTP or HTTPS if your backend supports Layer 7 routing (e.g., web services). Select TCP for Layer 4 routing (common with internal ALBs or non-HTTP services).
Health Check Path	Specify the URL path for health checks (e.g., /health).
Health Check Protocol	Select the protocol used for health checks (e.g., HTTPS, TCP, etc.).
HTTP Success Code	Enter the HTTP Success Code that indicates a healthy response (e.g., 200, 200-299).

Step 2. Registering Targets

Register backend resources to your Target Group. Registered targets will receive traffic routed by the Load Balancer. You can register EC2 Instances, IP addresses, or ALB Load Balancers.

1. From the DuploCloud Portal, navigate to Cloud Services → Networking → Load Balancers.

2. Select the Target Groups tab.

3. Click the menu icon () in the row of the Target Group.

4. Select Register Targets. The Register Targets pane displays.

   

   The Register Targets pane with an Instance selected
5. Specify the targets you want to register. The field name varies depending on the target type:

   • Instance: Select an EC2 Instance from the Targets list box.

   • IP: Enter the IP Address in the Add ip address.

   • Lambda: Select the function from the Lambda function list box.

   • ALB: Select an Application Load Balancer (ALB) from the Targets list box.

6. Click Register. The target(s) are registered to the Target Group.

Step 3. Creating a Load Balancer

To route traffic to your Target Group, create an Application Load Balancer (ALB) and associate it with the appropriate Target Group.

1. From the DuploCloud Portal, navigate to Cloud Services → Networking → Load Balancers.

2. Select the Load Balancers tab.

3. Click Add. The Create a Load Balancer pane displays.

4. Complete the required fields as shown below:

Name	Provide a unique name for the Load Balancer.
Type	Choose your Load Balancer type (e.g., Network or Application).
Visibility	Select Public to make the Load Balancer accessible from the internet, or Internal to restrict access to within your private network or VPC.

1. Click Create to create the Load Balancer.

2. Once the Load Balancer is created, add a listener:

   • On the Load Balancers page, select your newly created Load Balancer, and click on the Listeners tab.

   • Click Add. The Add Load Balancer Listener page displays.

   • Complete the fields in the Add Load Balancer Listener page as shown below:

Port	Provide the Load Balancer Listener Port (e.g., 80 for HTTP or 443 for HTTPS).
Protocol	Choose the same protocol used by the Target Group (e.g., TCP, TLS, or UDP) to ensure compatibility.
Action Type	Choose Forward to target groups.
Forward Target Group	Select the Target Group created in step 1. Note: Target Groups with Lambda targets can only be associated with ALBs using HTTP or HTTPS listeners. TCP/TLS listeners are not supported for Lambda targets.

1. Click Save to create the listener. The Load Balancer will route traffic to the selected Target Group based on the configured listener rules and health checks.

Managing Target Groups

You can update your Target Group configurations directly from Target Group menu:

1. From the DuploCloud Portal, navigate to Cloud Services → Networking → Load Balancers.

2. Select the Target Groups tab.

3. Click the menu icon () next to the Target Group you want to edit.

4. Select from the following options:

Console	Access the Azure Console
Edit	Modify the Target Group settings
Register Targets	Register target(s) from the Target Group
Deregister Targets	Deregister target(s) from the Target Group
Delete	Permanently removes the Target Group

1. Click Update. The changes are applied.