The problem being that most of what you linked to below is either A) out of date, or B) the only way to get proximity based load balancing (GSLB type stuff) with them is with DNS tricks. Breaking it down in order: The IBM solution hasn't been updated since 1999. It also seems relatively proprietary. The Cisco solution relies on either doing HTTP redirects (which is useless if you're not doing HTTP) or DNS. Both Foundry and Radware rely 100% on DNS to do their GSLB. You can do local load balancing on both boxes without, however. The last link is an outdated thesis paper that makes reference moreso to local load balancing and not global. It seems that in lieu of a real, currently produced solution, the only option is presently DNS to meet the requirements. Others have sent me off-list stuff they're working on, but none of it's ready for prime time. -Dave
-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] On Behalf Of Paul Vixie Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 2:03 PM To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: DNS Based Load Balancers
dave@rightmedia.com ("David Temkin") writes:
So, you guys have been pretty clear on what he shouldn't do.
What should he do as an alternative to using DNS for a proximity based solution?
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg245858.pdf http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/iaabu/distrdir /dd2501/ovr.htm http://www.radware.com/content/products/library/faq_wsd.pdf http://www.foundrynet.com/solutions/appNotes/GSLB.html http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/ifiadmin/staff/rofrei/DA/DA_Arbeiten_2 000/Masutti_Oliver.pdf
note that several of these describe or offer a dns-based solution as an option, but they all describe session-level redirection and most recommend that (as i do) and some even say "using dns for this is bad" (as i do, but for different reasons.) -- Paul Vixie