Is it possible to encrypt the traffic between the node and load-balancer?

[Vishnu Samavedula]

Currently, in the middle of implementing Confluence Data Center.

In regards to implementing SSL using the SSL termination methodology, the traffic looks like:

User --https--> Load Balancer --http--> node1

Has there been a use case where the data interaction has been over https even between the load balancer and Node(s):

User --https--> Load Balancer --https--> node1 

The current instructions is only for running the Confluence over SSL and doesn't say much about encrypting the data interaction among the nodes and load-balancer

[Question has been updated]

[Dana Cleveland]

Our setup is exactly this.

https -> LB -> [https (Apache ) -> http (local) Node1]

Where [ ] is all running on each server node..

So before we ever went to Data Center, or using Load Balancers our best practice was to run apache as a reserve proxy on every server running an Atlassian product (or pretty much any application container) as the front door. We then proxy to the instance running the product.

We also set the node to only response to localhost traffic for http, but allow direct https for maintenance of node.

The trick so much you have to have your load balancer and your node all have the appropriate certs and keys so they all handle the SSL. 

[Davin Studer]

You could setup IPsec between your load balancer and your Confluence nodes. So the load balancer would still access the nodes over http, but the http access would be inside a secure tunnel.

[Matt Doar]

True.

[Matt Doar]

Do you mean the traffic between the Confluence nodes within gthe same physical data center? That's all cache syncs I think. And not visible to external users anyway.

[Vishnu Samavedula]

Apologies Matt, I had to correct my question. I am looking at a use case where the traffic between node and load balancer is encrypted as well, if I were to choose the SSL Termination method.

[Matt Doar]

"doesn't say much about encrypting the data interaction among the nodes and load-balancer" yes, the DC docs don't go into details about specific load balancers.

But a good guideline is to never leave traffic unencrypted. And have the reverse proxy running on the same server as its Jira app

[Matt Doar]

Erm, Confluence