Getting Started with 11503

[greg.sander]

I need to find cabling intructions for my new 11503. I don't know how to cable between the 11503 and the switch the web servers are in. I also don't understand the relationship between the VLANs on the 11503 and the switch.

[Gilles Dufour]

You can use any ethernet cable.

The CSS is auto-learning the type of calbe you are using.

The CSS is a switch as well.

So, every physical interface needs to be placed in a vlan.

If you are familiar with vlan, this is exactly the same on the css as any other switch.

Gilles.

[greg.sander]

So I create vlans on the switch (for each web farm)and bridge CSS interfaces to the switch vlans? I was hoping to use a CSS GB interface (1/1) to uplink to the switch. Do I do that by bridging and trunking it to all switch VLANs?

[Gilles Dufour]

you can indeed use a trunk on the gig interface and have each vlans also present in the CSS.

Or you could have the CSS in a separate vlan, and have a router do the routing between your css vlan and the servers vlan.

Don't forget in your design that the css must see the server response and that by default the css spoofs the client ip address.

So, if you go for a routing only solution, you will need policy routing to redirect the server response back to the css.

Gilles.

[greg.sander]

Thanks - I tried implementing the GB trunk and now I have a different problem. I trunked the GB interface to two VLANs. Then I created two circuit VLANS (same vlan numbers as I used in the trunk) and applied an IP address to each. The second IP address failed because "only one IP interface is allowed on a subnet". I am relacing a LocalDirector with this 11503 so I have been thinking like LocalDirector. I planned on using a different IP address on the same subnet for each circuit. I have been associating the circuits with LocalDirector virtual addresses. Am I doing things wrong or do I need to use different subnets and figure out how to route between them.

[Gilles Dufour]

if you are replacing a localdirector, you can simply use one circuit and have multiple physical interface assigned to it.

The CSS will bridge between the interfaces and intercept the interesting traffic.

Gilles.

[greg.sander]

Thanks again - you mentioned that the CSS will 'bridge' between the interesting traffic. One problem we had with the LocalDirector was that real servers from one web farm were unable to browse to a different virtual server behind the same LocalDirector. I thought this was due to the LocalDirector being a bridge. Will we be able to browse from real to a different virtual server if I implement what you just described ?

[Gilles Dufour]

yes, if the traffic goes accross the CSS [bridged or routed] the css will intercept it and do its work.

So, this should be no problem.

Gilles.