SSL

Google Cloud Compute Infrastructure
1

can we install ssl only on servers and can we skip ssl on loadbalancers?

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2

Hi @Thiruvarasu ,

No, this is not going to to work if you’re going to install SSL certificates only on the server side and then skip SSL certificates on the load balancer side.

SSL/TLS termination is needed at the load balancer to decrypt the incoming traffic (HTTPS). This is explained on this documentation. This is how the load balancer work :

  1. Terminate the SSL connection.
  2. Decrypt the traffic.
  3. Forward it back to the servers (backend) via an unencrypted connection.

Therefore, if you’re going to use GCP load balancers, you need to install SSL/TLS certificates on the load balancer itself to enable the SSL/TLS termination. The load balancer’s role is to be the termination point for traffic that are encrypted then back to the servers (backend) as decrypted traffic.