Load balancing

UnixGuy

I would like some input from you guys.

I'm involved in some parts of a project that will finally produce some kind of smart cards.

Anyway, I have to set up Sun servers, and set up Solaris OS there.

Verisign engineers will come and install their application on the servers.


4 of the servers I setup must have some kind of load balancing.

I've been told that they will be connected to a load balancing appliance ("layer 7 switch as the mighty "consultant" said).

I would like to get an idea from you guys on this type of device that will do load balancing ? have you used anything similar ? do you recommend any specific brand ? what features should be in this device ?

waiting your response...

kriscamaro68

Well I dont know awhole lot about loadbalancers but where I work started out with a barracuda load balancer that was balancing between 3 mysql servers in replication. We ditched that LB for 2 cisco load balancers that seem to handle the data much more efficiently. If you are going to be dealing with a bit of data then I would go with the cisco loadbalancers the barracuda just couldnt cut it.

royal

F5 BIGIPs and Cisco load balancers are both very good. Have worked with 2 clients that used both quite extensively.

BeaverC32

We use Cisco ACE modules here as well:
Cisco ACE Application Control Engine Module - Products & Services - Cisco Systems

malcybood

We use F5 Big-IP's as Link controllers for our dual ISP connections as opposed to using BGP, they operate in Active/Standby but can operate in active/active also. Load balancing is a feature of the Link controller if you wanted to use active/active.


BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) module is what you would be after thought based on what you have described.

Another option are the Cisco devices and Nortel Alteon's which come as switch units or blades that can connect into your IBM Blade centre.

We use the F5's for link controllers and the Nortel Alteon's to loadbalance intranet / document mgmt system traffic.

you can also use websphere software in clustered server environments

You will be getting some great experience with that project if you get to set up the load balancing product/s. These types of devices are used in the industry a fair bit at the moment but will be even more so when we begin to see wider implementation of virtualised environments and file/application servers disappearing from the remote offices into the data centre.

Along with TCP/WAN optimization and application orientated networking from companies such as F5, Riverbed and Cisco (WAAS).

Kaminsky

royal wrote: »

F5 BIGIPs and Cisco load balancers are both very good. Have worked with 2 clients that used both quite extensively.

+1 We use the F5's a lot for big deployments into the data centre.

bertieb

Like most of the other responders, we use F5 BIG IP (LTM) and have done for some time, though these are certainly not cheap.

A lot of the functionality requirements would probably depend on your apps and what you're trying to achieve, but as a starter you want to make sure they offer different types of load-balancing methods (round robin, least connections etc) and good persistence options. Some also let you add (in other words, buy) SSL Acceleration modules and Compression options which are handy in specific circumstances. The F5 site goes into some depth on typical features and add on components, this may be worth a look for comparison purposes against other devices.

astorrs

There are really two companies you want to look at if you're looking for Enterprise class load balancers: F5 BIG-IP (as others have said) and Citrix NetScaler.

F5 is prevalent in the Enterprise as most networking teams know about their products and include them in any kind of bake-off before deciding on which one to go with and Cisco (who's L7 switches are garbage comparatively) since they are usually the vendor for the routers/switches within the company. Occasionally Foundry will get included too.

Most "networking" guys who don't have a background in massive web hosting deployments dismiss Citrix NetScaler as a niche player, or something to only front-end XenApp with. The reality is something very different, based on internet traffic 75% or more of all the people reading this post have been through a NetScaler device sometime in the last day.

You might have heard of some of the companies using NetScaler to front-end their websites: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ebay, Amazon, Myspace, AOL, E*Trade, Ticketmaster, Walmart, Veoh, Friendfinder, match.com, etc. recognize any of those?

Anyway give them a look too, there feature set is comparable to F5, scalability is a non-issue (last time I spoke to someone a year ago Google had over 1200 high-availability pairs in production), and they are way easier to configure/manage.

Here is the Garter Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers that covers the major players in the space as of July last year (it's the latest copy).

Now with all that said if you're looking for something more in the SMB class (not sure the size of this deployment, number of users, etc) there are some great options from companies like KEMP Technologies that are really targeting that market (vs. the big boys who just scale their products back a little bit). They may also be more in line with your budget.

And don't forget a pair of load balancers don't need to be dedicated to a single task (the largest models Citrix sells scale to 340,000 HTTP requests per second). Enterprise class models can significantly improve all web based applications in your company (by utilizing caching and compression, along with TCP optimizations, etc) so SharePoint, SAP, Oracle eBusiness, etc runs way faster/smoother.

Oh and no I don't work for Citrix, just a happy user.

UnixGuy

Very interesting ! Thanks guys !

The problem is, the choice is not mine, and most probably some other company will provide load balancing switch, and our consultant tries his best to exclude me from any challenging task because he's afraid of lol


I've seen "f5" switches a lot in telcos, but never got the chance to work with any. I've seen them in Ericsson racks and in Motorola racks.

Will keep you updated..

UnixGuy

OK it seems that my company should provide the load balancing appliance, and looks like we have a budget problem.

Can you guys please provide me with links and prices and suggestions ? I really appreciate your help

astorrs

UnixGuy wrote: »

OK it seems that my company should provide the load balancing appliance, and looks like we have a budget problem.

Can you guys please provide me with links and prices and suggestions ? I really appreciate your help

Let's start with a budget so we know roughly what direction to look...

UnixGuy

astorrs wrote: »

Let's start with a budget so we know roughly what direction to look...

I don't have budget details and it will be useless because I'm very far from you guys.

Let's say we want to sacrifice fancy features in favor of reducing cost.

I looked up the devices you suggested, but couldn't find proper pricing

astorrs

UnixGuy wrote: »

I don't have budget details and it will be useless because I'm very far from you guys.

Let's say we want to sacrifice fancy features in favor of reducing cost.

I looked up the devices you suggested, but couldn't find proper pricing

Okay are you looking sub $10k/USD device? or more in the 20-50k range?

UnixGuy

astorrs wrote: »

Okay are you looking sub $10k/USD device? or more in the 20-50k range?

I'm looking for sub 10K/USD