Classic Load Balancer Application Load Balancer & Network Load Balancer
Legacy names Classic Load Balancer, Elastic Load Balancing (ELB v1)
Managed Layer 7 (Application Load Balancer) and Layer 4 (Network Load Balancer) traffic distribution services with target groups, content-based routing, container port mapping, and AWS WAF integration.
Naming timeline
- Elastic Load Balancing (later renamed Classic Load Balancer)
Launched as a single load balancer type on the original elb API namespace (aws elb, aws_elb) supporting basic Layer 4 and Layer 7 traffic distribution.
- Application Load Balancer (ELBv2) & Classic Load Balancer
AWS launched Application Load Balancer on the new elbv2 API namespace with target groups and content-based routing, renaming the original load balancer to Classic Load Balancer.
- Application Load Balancer & Network Load BalancerCurrent name
Added ultra-low-latency Layer 4 Network Load Balancer (and Gateway Load Balancer in Nov 2020) on the elbv2 API; EC2-Classic Load Balancers were retired on August 15, 2022.
What replaced Classic Load Balancer?
Classic Load Balancer has been superseded by Application Load Balancer & Network Load Balancer, with the latest change on 7 September 2017 (Network Load Balancer Launch (EC2-Classic Retired Aug 15, 2022)). Earlier names covered by this entry also include Elastic Load Balancing (ELB v1). Managed Layer 7 (Application Load Balancer) and Layer 4 (Network Load Balancer) traffic distribution services with target groups, content-based routing, container port mapping, and AWS WAF integration. The underlying legacy API or CLI surface is deprecated, so a technical migration is required.
Also known as
- Elastic Load Balancing V2
- ELBv2
- Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB)
Technical identifiers
Legacy identifiers deprecated. The underlying API or CLI surface for the legacy name is officially deprecated, so this change requires a technical migration rather than a label update.
| AWS Service APIs / SDKs | elbv2 elb |
|---|---|
| AWS CLI Commands | aws elbv2 aws elb |
| IAM Actions & Policies | elasticloadbalancing:* |
| Terraform Resources (aws_*) | aws_lb aws_lb_target_group aws_lb_listener aws_lb_listener_rule aws_elb |
The previous-generation Classic Load Balancer v1 API (elb), CLI (aws elb), CloudFormation resource (AWS::ElasticLoadBalancing::LoadBalancer), and Terraform resource (aws_elb) are superseded by the elbv2 API, aws elbv2 CLI, and aws_lb / aws_lb_target_group Terraform resources.
Notes & disambiguation
- On August 11, 2016, AWS introduced Application Load Balancer (ALB) on the new elbv2 API architecture and officially renamed the original May 2009 Elastic Load Balancing offering to Classic Load Balancer, later adding Network Load Balancer (September 7, 2017) and Gateway Load Balancer (November 10, 2020) on the same elbv2 API.
- Current-generation load balancers (ALB, NLB, and GWLB) use the elbv2 API, aws elbv2 CLI commands, AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::* CloudFormation types, and aws_lb / aws_lb_target_group / aws_lb_listener Terraform resources, replacing the previous-generation elb v1 API (aws elb, AWS::ElasticLoadBalancing::LoadBalancer, aws_elb).
- Following the August 15, 2022 retirement of EC2-Classic, AWS designates Classic Load Balancer as a previous-generation load balancer and provides an in-console migration wizard and copy utility to migrate VPC Classic Load Balancers to Application Load Balancers or Network Load Balancers.
Sources & official documentation
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