Cisco GSS Load Balance on multiple ports

[franklin664]

I have a server with 2 ip address assigned to it.  The first has the application running on the normal http port 80 and on the second ip address the same application is running on port 100.

Is there a way to setup the GSS so that when some one hits application.lb.com it load balances between the application running on the ip address with port 80 and the ip address with the application running on port 100?

Thanks

[Daniel Arrondo Ostiz]

Good afternoon,

The GSS is load-balancing traffic based on DNS, so I'm afraid it cannot take ports into account. However, you could load-balance between the two IP addresses without issues.

I'm not sure if this would be possible in your setup, but, you could try to configure a redirection on the second address of the server itself from port 80 to port 100.

Regards

Daniel

[franklin664]

Can this be done with a Cisco ACE?

Thanks

[Daniel Arrondo Ostiz]

With an ACE (or any other standard load-balancer), it would be a very different setup. In that case, the FQDN would only resolve to one single IP address (which would be the one of the ACE VIP) and then the ACE will load-balance in the backend between the two servers.

In this situation, you can configure a rserver as a combination of IP and port, so you would easily achieve what you require

Regards

Daniel

[franklin664]

There is only one server with 2 ip addresses.  But it sounds like we can do it.  We have an ACE and a GSS.  Can you send me a link on the setup of rserver combination.  I have never setup anything on the ACE.

[Marko Leopold]

In combination of ACE and GSS it will be possible to build up your setup.

[Daniel Arrondo Ostiz]

Hi,

The configuration on the ACE would more or less look like the one below:

rserver host SERVER_80
  ip address x.x.x.x 80  --> First address of the server
  inservice
rserver host SERVER_100
  ip address y.y.y.y 100 --> Second address of the server
  inservice
serverfarm host FARM
 rserver SERVER_80
     inservice
 rserver SERVER_100
     inservice
policy-map type loadbalance first-match LB_POLICY
  class class-default
    serverfarm FARM
class-map match-all VIP
  2 match virtual-address z.z.z.z tcp eq www --> Virtual IP (the one returned by the GSS)
policy-map multi-match MULTI_POLICY
     class VIP    
         loadbalance vip inservice
         loadbalance policy LB_POLICY
         loadbalance vip icmp-reply 
interface vlan CLIENT_VLAN
     ip address 
 
     service-policy input MULTI_POLICY

For more details on how to configure the ACE, I would recommend you to refer to the official documentaion, as well as the link below, which includes several examples

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Cisco_Application_Control_Engine_%28ACE%29_Configuration_Examples

I hope this helps

Daniel

[Paul Pinto]

Hi Daniel,

If one has GSS setup so when accessing www.myapplication.lb.com, GSS has two A records, DC A VIP and DC B VIP. DNS rule is setup for a DR scenario (i.e. balance method is Ordered List), so all traffic goes to DC A and only to DC B if DC a is unavailable.

Access to the VIP's is required on the same VIP(FQDN) on two different ports. Would the above GSS implemnetation in combination with the below sample ACE config be sufficeint. I think, so. Just like your input if possible, or any of the other esteemed members.

rserver host SERVER_A

      ip address x.x.x.10

      inservice

    rserver host SERVER_B

      ip address x.x.x.11

      inservice

    rserver host SERVER_C

      ip address x.x.x.12

      inservice

    rserver host SERVER_D

      ip address x.x.x.13

      inservice

    serverfarm host FARM_80

    rserver SERVER_A 80

         inservice

    rserver SERVER_B 80

         inservice

    rserver SERVER_C 80

         inservice

    rserver SERVER_D 80

         inservice

    serverfarm host FARM_100

    rserver SERVER_A 100

        backup-rserver SERVER_B 100

         inservice

    rserver SERVER_B 100

         inservice standby

    policy-map type loadbalance first-match LB_80_POLICY

      class class-default

        serverfarm FARM_80

    policy-map type loadbalance first-match LB_100_POLICY

      class class-default

        serverfarm FARM_100

    class-map match-all VIP_80

      2 match virtual-address z.z.z.z tcp eq www --> Virtual IP (the one returned by the GSS)

    class-map match-all VIP_100

      2 match virtual-address z.z.z.z tcp eq 100 --> Virtual IP (the one returned by the GSS)

    policy-map multi-match MULTI_POLICY

         class VIP_80  

             loadbalance vip inservice

             loadbalance policy LB_80_POLICY

             loadbalance vip icmp-reply

        class VIP_100  

             loadbalance vip inservice

             loadbalance policy LB_100_POLICY

             loadbalance vip icmp-reply

    interface vlan CLIENT_VLAN

         ip address

         service-policy input MULTI_POLICY

Many Thanks.

Paul.

[Daniel Arrondo Ostiz]

Hi Paul,

In the setup you are mentioning, what you would have is two datacenters isolated from each other. In each one of those, you would have an ACE module with the two servers corresponding to that datacenter configured. The configuration for both datacenters would be the one I proposed, only the IP addresses (both of the VIP and the rservers) would be different for each datacenter.

Let me also add one other comment to your configuration. What was originally requested was load-balancing to two servers (actually, one with two addresses) listening on different ports. What you proposed is a VIP listening on two ports and with different load-balancing depending on what port is used.

Daniel

[Paul Pinto]

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for the reponse. So it sounds like this will achieve what we require. We would also just have to create the relevent keep-Alives on the GSS for multiple ports on the VIP's at each DC.

Apologies for straying from the original thread request.

Thank you again.

Paul.