Troubleshooting Load Balancer Restricted Access Issues

Traffic dropped. Logs filled with denials. The load balancer was blocking requests.

A load balancer with restricted access is not broken by default. It is following its rules. Those rules decide who gets through and who does not. When you set this up, you define allowlists, denylists, CIDR ranges, or authentication checks.

Restricted access can come from network policies, security groups, or direct configuration in the load balancer itself. Common cases include limiting access to certain IP addresses, blocking unknown geographic regions, or gating traffic behind a VPN. This improves security, but it can unintentionally lock out legitimate clients or services if not updated when your infrastructure changes.

If your load balancer returns 403 errors or connection resets, check its access control list first. Compare logged IPs against the allowed range. Look for overrides in cloud provider settings. On AWS, inspect security groups and network ACLs along with the Application or Network Load Balancer rules. On GCP or Azure, check firewall rules in parallel with load balancer policies.

When applying restricted access, keep automation and monitoring in place. Use infrastructure-as-code to define access so changes are tracked. Add alerts for denied requests so you catch problems before customers notice. Test from different networks before cutting over to production.

Misconfigured restrictions slow incident response. A clear, documented policy prevents surprises. Always balance the smallest possible access surface with the needs of your users and services.

Get a safe, secure, and transparent view of your application traffic. See how to configure access policies and test them instantly. Try it now with hoop.dev — live in minutes.