Multi-Region & Load Balancing
We have a new datacenter in America to complement our original European operation.
Live-Rates has gone international. A new datacenter in America now complements the original European operation, giving the platform two active regions serving real-time foreign exchange rates.
The rollout introduces smarter DNS-based routing so requests reach the closest healthy datacenter automatically, while direct-connection options remain available for latency-sensitive integrations.
Key takeaways
- Live-Rates now operates from two datacenters: Europe and America.
- Regional endpoints are exposed as eu.live-rates.com and us.live-rates.com.
- The main live-rates.com hostname uses DNS-based routing for availability and geography.
- Direct regional connections are faster but do not fail over automatically.
- Bypassing DNS returns 502 or 521 errors when the chosen datacenter is unhealthy.
Two Active Regions
Live-Rates is served from two datacenters, each reachable through its own hostname:
- Europe — eu.live-rates.com
- America — us.live-rates.com
The European datacenter is the original deployment. The American datacenter is the new addition that turns Live-Rates into a multi-region service.
How DNS Routing Works
Connecting to live-rates.com hands the request to the Live-Rates DNS server, which forwards traffic to the preferred location. Two factors drive that decision:
- Server availability across the regions.
- The geographical location of the request.
Why Route Through DNS
DNS routing sends each client to a healthy datacenter and, when possible, the geographically closest one. If one region has an issue, traffic can be steered to the alternative region instead of failing.
Direct Regional Connections
Clients can bypass the DNS layer and connect straight to eu.live-rates.com or us.live-rates.com. That path is faster because it skips the routing decision.
The Trade-Off
A direct connection has no automatic fallback. If the chosen datacenter has a problem, the response will be a 502 or 521 error instead of a successful response from the alternative server.
Choosing an Endpoint
Integrations that value resilience should target live-rates.com and let DNS handle routing. Integrations that prioritize the lowest possible latency and can tolerate handling regional errors themselves can pin to a specific regional hostname.
Further Reading
Full details on the multi-region setup are documented in the Multi-Region section on Github.
FAQ
Which datacenters does Live-Rates operate?
Live-Rates operates two datacenters: the original one in Europe, reachable at eu.live-rates.com, and a new one in America, reachable at us.live-rates.com.
What happens when a request is sent to live-rates.com?
The Live-Rates DNS server forwards the request to the preferred location based on server availability and the geographical location of the request.
Is it faster to connect directly to a regional endpoint?
Yes. Bypassing the DNS server and connecting directly to a specific datacenter is faster than routing through live-rates.com.
What is the downside of connecting directly to a datacenter?
If that datacenter has an issue, the client receives a 502 or 521 error instead of a successful response from the alternative server, because the direct connection does not fail over.
Where can more details about the multi-region setup be found?
Additional information is available in the Multi-Region section of the Live-Rates README on Github.
Developers who need reliable, globally routed foreign exchange data can review the available plans on the Live-Rates plans page.
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