Load Balancer Solution

[lamav]

Folks:

I need to implement a load balancing solution pretty soon and I would like some ideas regarding topology, design and methodology.

This is what I have:

1.) Two 7600 Aggregation routers with 4500 L2 server farm switches hanging off of them in a looped topology.

2.) Load balancers (either an ACE module or an ACE appliance).

3.) 4 vlans with a cluster of DNS servers in one, a cluster of DHCP in another, and 2 application server clusters in the 3rd and 4th.

What I need to know is what approahes I can take regarding routing methodology, L2 adjacency, general approach, connectivity, etc.

I know this is a loaded question, but if I can get 2 or 3 complete solutions from the folks on this board, that would be awesome!

Im about to board aplane, so I cant respond to queries until about 3 hours or so.

Thanks!

Victor

[Collin Clark]

Victor-

There are ton of options, hard for us to say which is best. Since you have 7600's I would lean to keep that as your routing point. Here's a link to the SRND which covers a bunch of the design options. You also might want to post in the Application Networking forum (under Data Center), there are some top-notch ACE people over there.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/ACE_FWSM.html

Hope that helps.

[lamav]

Collin:

Thanks, man. I was going to check out the SRNDs when I got home. Im still airport hopping. Im on my way home from Cisco dallas. had a meeting with AS for a gig on the west coast thtas kicking off soon.

I was hoping, though, that some people can at least give me an example of how they have seen it done or how they have done it on their networks. I remember Jon gave me a great solution a long time ago. I wish I had saved it.

Im gonna take your advice about the application networking forum, too.

Thanks

Victor

[Jon Marshall]

Victor

Found a couple of threads where we discussed these sort of things -

http://forum.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/NetProf?page=netprof&forum=Network%20Infrastructure&topic=LAN%2C%20Switching%20and%20Routing&CommCmd=MB%3Fcmd%3Dpass_through%26location%3Doutline%40^1%40%40.2cc09b58/7#selected_message

http://forum.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/NetProf?page=netprof&forum=Network%20Infrastructure&topic=WAN%2C%20Routing%20and%20Switching&CommCmd=MB%3Fcmd%3Dpass_through%26location%3Doutline%40^1%40%40.2cbfe876/10#selected_message

My experience with ACE modules is fairly limited but a lot of what we discussed is still applicable.

Jon

[Collin Clark]

I can tell you what I've done, but it's a lot simpler than what you're looking at. I setup an ACE appliance that load balanced HTTP/HTTPS. I have a two-tier firewalled DMZ.

FW--ACE--WEBSEAL--FW--DATA

Very straight forward. We had a project to replace our internal CSS's which would look a lot more like what you're doing, but it got canceled because of the economy.

[Leo Laohoo]

Victor,

You don't get that solution from back-issue Hustler magazine. He he he ...