--- name: vpc-lb-update title: Updating an application load balancer description: You can update an IBM Cloud® Application Load Balancer for VPC (ALB) with the console, CLI, or API. last-updated: 2026-06-11 --- > ## Documentation Index > The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?format=markdown > The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt > Use these files to discover more information as needed. # Updating an application load balancer {: #alb-updating} You can update an IBM Cloud® Application Load Balancer for VPC (ALB) with the console, CLI, or API. ## Updating an application load balancer in the console {: #alb-updating-ui} {: ui} To update an ALB in the IBM Cloud console, perform the following procedure: 1. From your browser, open the [IBM Cloud console](https://cloud.ibm.com/login){: external} and log in to your account. 1. Select the **Navigation menu** ![Menu icon](../icons/icon_hamburger.svg), then click **Infrastructure** ![VPC icon](../../icons/vpc.svg) > **Network** > **Load balancers**. 1. Select the Region of your load balancer. 1. Select the load balancer that you want to update. 1. Select **Back-end pools** if you need to edit a pool or virtual server instance parameters. 1. Select **Front-end listeners** if you need to edit listener parameters. To update the Client/Server timeout values, select **Edit** from the Actions menu ![Actions icon](../icons/action-menu-icon.svg "Actions") in the row of the Listener that you want to edit. You can select a timeout value between 50 seconds and 2 hours (7200 seconds). This value is for both the client and server. If you need more than 2 hours, you can [open a support case](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/support?topic=support-open-case&interface=ui&format=markdown) and provide a business requirement for the timeout value required. 1. After you're done editing, select **Save** to save your changes. The **Active** button on the upper left of your window now shows as **Updating**. When **Updating** changes back to **Active**, the update is done and the new changes are applied. ## Updating an application load balancer from the CLI {: #alb-updating-cli} {: cli} There are multiple options to update your ALB from the CLI. For options, see [VPC CLI reference for load balancers](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-vpc-reference&format=markdown#lb-anchor). The following example shows how to use the CLI to update your ALB pool to use the algorithm `least_connections` and the port of the member: Sample command: ```sh ibmcloud is load-balancer-pool-update r006-99b5ab45-6357-42db-8b32-5d2c8aa62776 r006-3b66d605-6aa5-4166-9f66-b16054da3cb0 --algorithm least_connections ``` {: pre} Sample output: ```sh Updating pool r006-3b66d605-6aa5-4166-9f66-b16054da3cb0 of load balancer r006-99b5ab45-6357-42db-8b32-5d2c8aa62776 under account IBM Cloud Network Services as user test@ibm.com... ID r006-3b66d605-6aa5-4166-9f66-b16054da3cb0 Name alb-pool Protocol tcp Algorithm least_connections Instance group ID Name - - Health monitor Type Port Health monitor URL Delay Retries Timeout http 8080 / 10 2 5 Session persistence type source_ip Members r006-61f8b000-a90d-4abe-909e-c507dffec565 Provision status update_pending Created 2020-08-27T14:45:42.038-05:00 ``` {: screen} Sample command: ```sh ibmcloud is load-balancer-pool-member-update r006-99b5ab45-6357-42db-8b32-5d2c8aa62776 r006-3b66d605-6aa5-4166-9f66-b16054da3cb0 r006-61f8b000-a90d-4abe-909e-c507dffec565 --port 6060 ``` {: pre} Sample output: ```sh Updating member r006-61f8b000-a90d-4abe-909e-c507dffec565 of load balancer pool r006-3b66d605-6aa5-4166-9f66-b16054da3cb0 under account IBM Cloud Network Services as user test@ibm.com... ID r006-61f8b000-a90d-4abe-909e-c507dffec565 Port 6060 Target 0716_6acdd058-4607-4463-af08-d4999d983945 Weight 70 Health unknown Created 2020-08-27T14:59:55.446-05:00 Provision status update_pending ``` {: screen} ### Updating an application load balancer timeout value from the CLI {: #alb-timeout-value-updating-cli} {: cli} The following example shows how to use the CLI to update your ALB timeout value: 1. Get the listener ID: ```sh ibmcloud is load-balancer LOAD_BALANCER_ID ``` {: pre} 1. Verify the current listener details: ```sh ibmcloud is load-balancer-listener [--load-balancer LOAD_BALANCER_ID] [--listener LISTENER_ID] [--output JSON] ``` {: pre} 1. Update the timeout value: ```sh ibmcloud is load-balancer-listener-update [--load-balancer LOAD_BALANCER_ID] [--listener LISTENER_ID] [--idle-connection-timeout VALUE_IN_SECONDS] ``` {: pre} Where: `--load-balancer` : ID or name of the load balancer. `--listener` : ID or name of the listener. `--output` : Output format, only `JSON` is supported. `--idle-connection-timeout` : Idle connection timeout value in seconds. Sample command: ```sh ibmcloud is load-balancer-listener-update r042-ce351658-c236-4c99-8711-1414c5a6a99c r042-a00f2544-a1d3-4f9b-af31-4c34990a01f0 --idle-connection-timeout 90 ``` {: pre} Sample output: ```sh Updating listener r042-a00f2544-a1d3-4f9b-af31-4c34990a01f0 of load balancer r042-ce351658-c236-4c99-8711-1414c5a6a99c under account SoftLayer Internal - Network Operations as user labhatia@in.ibm.com... ID r042-a00f2544-a1d3-4f9b-af31-4c34990a01f0 Certificate instance - Connection limit - Ports 22 Idle connection timeout 90 Protocol http Default pool - Accept proxy protocol false Provision status update_pending Created 2025-04-15T14:11:06+05:30 ``` {: screen} ## Updating an application load balancer with the API {: #alb-updating-frontend-listener-port-api} {: api} The following example illustrates how to use the API to update the front-end listener port of an application load balancer. For example, if the front-end listener port was set to 80 and you want to update the port value to 90. To update an application load balancer with the API, follow these steps: 1. Set up your [API environment](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-set-up-environment&format=markdown#api-prerequisites-setup). 1. Use the following example to get the listener ID that you need for the update: Save the ID of the load balancer: ```sh export lbid="r042-ce351658-c236-4c99-8711-1414c5a6a99c" ``` {: pre} Install "jq" to view the output from the following command in clean JSON format. {: note} ```sh curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $iam_token" -X GET "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/load_balancers/$lbid?version=$api_version&generation=2" | jq ``` {: codeblock} Sample output: ```sh { "access_mode": "private", "attached_load_balancer_pool_members": [], "availability": "subnet", "created_at": "2024-12-23T06:29:04Z", "crn": "crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:br-sao:a/5a83dca0e9c3408788bac5da136a9e76::load-balancer:r042-ce351658-c236-4c99-8711-1414c5a6a99c", "dns": { "instance": { "crn": "crn:v1:bluemix:public:dns-svcs:global:a/74589ab5050034ede18fa510153e91f8:a2b96ed8-cea2-4db0-b60a-c02d99586d4f::" }, "zone": { "id": "a9240f0c-da77-4c55-be84-1d56c549a4de" } }, "failsafe_policy_actions": [ "fail", "drop", "forward" ], "hostname": "ce351658-br-sao.test.com", "href": "https://br-sao.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/load_balancers/r042-ce351658-c236-4c99-8711-1414c5a6a99c", "id": "r042-ce351658-c236-4c99-8711-1414c5a6a99c", "instance_groups_supported": true, "is_private_path": false, "is_public": false, "listeners": [ { "href": "https://br-sao.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/load_balancers/r042-ce351658-c236-4c99-8711-1414c5a6a99c/listeners/r042-a00f2544-a1d3-4f9b-af31-4c34990a01f0", "id": "r042-a00f2544-a1d3-4f9b-af31-4c34990a01f0" } ], "logging": { "datapath": { "active": true } }, "name": "test-alb", "operating_status": "online", "pools": [ { "href": "https://br-sao.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/load_balancers/r042-ce351658-c236-4c99-8711-1414c5a6a99c/pools/r042-40fe93a2-16f4-467d-b0e4-70c7b093e137", "id": "r042-40fe93a2-16f4-467d-b0e4-70c7b093e137", "name": "pooltest" } ], "private_ips": [ { "address": "192.168.40.12", "href": "https://br-sao.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/subnets/02v7-3520cb95-db1a-4787-9bde-f9cb8e811685/reserved_ips/02v7-be9dd47d-3899-4f67-8f7d-0a38ee73a376", "id": "02v7-be9dd47d-3899-4f67-8f7d-0a38ee73a376", "name": "author-sabbatical-zookeeper-paddleboat", "resource_type": "subnet_reserved_ip" }, { "address": "192.168.40.13", "href": "https://br-sao.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/subnets/02v7-3520cb95-db1a-4787-9bde-f9cb8e811685/reserved_ips/02v7-4a439c6a-15ed-43c0-910c-345d3af5f0c0", "id": "02v7-4a439c6a-15ed-43c0-910c-345d3af5f0c0", "name": "thinning-visitor-prance-chaps", "resource_type": "subnet_reserved_ip" } ], "profile": { "family": "application", "href": "https://br-sao.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/load_balancer/profiles/dynamic", "name": "dynamic" }, "provisioning_status": "active", "public_ips": [], "resource_group": { "href": "https://resource-controller.cloud.ibm.com/v2/resource_groups/5710acc3545d425db62cb37037d17245", "id": "5710acc3545d425db62cb37037d17245", "name": "Default" }, "resource_type": "load_balancer", "route_mode": false, "security_groups": [ { "crn": "crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:br-sao:a/5a83dca0e9c3408788bac5da136a9e76::security-group:r042-f9a9b05b-9f19-4e65-a39c-8e5ccd1b0303", "href": "https://br-sao.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/security_groups/r042-f9a9b05b-9f19-4e65-a39c-8e5ccd1b0303", "id": "r042-f9a9b05b-9f19-4e65-a39c-8e5ccd1b0303", "name": "resent-wrongness-erasure-flaky" } ], "security_groups_supported": true, "source_ip_session_persistence_supported": true, "subnets": [ { "crn": "crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:br-sao-3:a/5a83dca0e9c3408788bac5da136a9e76::subnet:02v7-3520cb95-db1a-4787-9bde-f9cb8e811685", "href": "https://br-sao.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/subnets/02v7-3520cb95-db1a-4787-9bde-f9cb8e811685", "id": "02v7-3520cb95-db1a-4787-9bde-f9cb8e811685", "name": "subnet-test-zone3", "resource_type": "subnet" } ], "udp_supported": false } ``` {: screen} 1. Save the listener ID that you want to update from the previous step. For example, save it in the variable `listenerid`. ```sh export listenerid="r042-a00f2544-a1d3-4f9b-af31-4c34990a01f0" ``` {: pre} 1. Update the listener port and client/server timeout values of the load balancer: ```sh curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $iam_token" -X PATCH "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/load_balancers/$lbid/listeners/$listenerid?version=$api_version&generation=2" \ -d '{"idle_connection_timeout": 50 , "port": 8080}' | jq ``` {: codeblock} Sample output: ```text { "id": "r042-a00f2544-a1d3-4f9b-af31-4c34990a01f0", "href": "https://br-sao.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/load_balancers/r042-ce351658-c236-4c99-8711-1414c5a6a99c/listeners/r042-a00f2544-a1d3-4f9b-af31-4c34990a01f0", "protocol": "http", "port": 8080, "port_min": 8080, "port_max": 8080, "provisioning_status": "update_pending", "created_at": "2025-04-15T08:41:06Z", "accept_proxy_protocol": false, "idle_connection_timeout": 50 } ``` {: screen} You can set a timeout value between 50 and 7200 seconds. If you need more than 2 hours (7200 seconds), you can [open a support case](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/support?topic=support-open-case&interface=ui&format=markdown). {: note}