cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
831
Views
5
Helpful
7
Replies

Server Load Balancing

Alex Pfeil
Level 7
Level 7

Can I implement Server Load Balancing on a 6509? Or is there something similar I can look into? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Alex Pfeil

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Jon Marshall
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Alex

Yes you can. See attached link for details of IOS SLB on 6500 and which supervisors/versions of code are needed.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2sx/feature/guide/slbsxf7.html

The other way of load balancing on the 6500 is to use a dedicated load balancing module which uses one of the slots. These being

CSM - Content Switch Module

CSM-S - Content Switch Module with SSL daughtercard

ACE - Application Control Engine

The ACE module is the latest module for load-balancing on the 6500.

Jon

View solution in original post

7 Replies 7

Jon Marshall
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Alex

Yes you can. See attached link for details of IOS SLB on 6500 and which supervisors/versions of code are needed.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2sx/feature/guide/slbsxf7.html

The other way of load balancing on the 6500 is to use a dedicated load balancing module which uses one of the slots. These being

CSM - Content Switch Module

CSM-S - Content Switch Module with SSL daughtercard

ACE - Application Control Engine

The ACE module is the latest module for load-balancing on the 6500.

Jon

Thanks,

I appreciate your time and the quick response.

It helps out a lot!

Thanks,

Alex Pfeil

Jon,

Can you give me a quick low-down on when the IOS SLB would be preferable, and when the time comes to make the jump to a full CSM or ACE module?

I know the IOS is by far the cheapest, but at what point is their a requirement to go to a separate card to perform the load balancing?

Thank you very much.

Tyler

Tyler

There are quite a few restrictions with IOS SLB. For example if you want SLB to be performed in hardware you need to use dispatched mode but in dispatched mode the real servers have to be L2 adjacent or accessible via a GRE tunnel.

Directed mode doesn't enforce this requirement but then it is handled on the MSFC ie. in software so there will be a performance hit on the 6500.

Basically if you have basic load-balancing requirements and already have a 6500, IOS SLB is a valid choice. But you need to check all the restrictions - see the link in previous thread.

But for more complex or more large scale load-balancing an ACE module is the way to go and bear in mind you can virtualise the ACE module.

Jon

lamav
Level 8
Level 8

Of course you can.

You can incorprate a separate server load balancing appliance with the 6509, like a BigIP or a Cisco CSS 11500 series device.

Or you can use a content switch module and slide it into the 6509 chassis.

Or you can do an IOS-based version of server load balancing called IOS-SLB, which is a poor man's version of options 1 and 2 above.

HTH

Victor

Hey, Jon:

Sorry for the cross-post.

VL

No problem Victor, i do it all the time :-)

Getting Started

Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community: