Technical data

138 Brocade ServerIron ADX Advanced Server Load Balancing Guide
53-1003441-01
Configuring pass-through flow management
3
NOTE
Pass-through flow management does not function if the MAC addresses are defined statically.
High Availability support
Pass-through flow management is available in active-active HA mode only. For pass-through flow
management to function properly with High Availability (HA), you must follow the symmetric
numbering convention when you connect multiple devices to the two ServerIron ADX devices that
are configured in HA. For example, if you connect a device to interface ethernet 1/1 on the first
ServerIron ADX, then you must also have another connection from this device to the same
interface, ethernet 1/1, on the second ServerIron ADX.
One of the two ServerIron ADX devices processes the ingress traffic from a specific MAC address. If
an HA failover event or asymmetric traffic flow situation occurs, the second ServerIron ADX handles
the reverse traffic and forwards it to the same MAC address if it is known through the MAC table, or
on the same interface number where the ServerIron ADX previously received the traffic in the
forward direction.
Pass-through flow management configuration example
Figure 33 shows a network topology in which two DPI devices are connected to a ServerIron ADX
enabled with the pass-through flow management feature. In this example, when DPI device 1
sends traffic with a source MAC address (MAC_A) to the ServerIron ADX, the ServerIron ADX tracks
the flow and stores this address for the incoming pass-through traffic. When the ServerIron ADX
receives the return traffic for this flow, it replaces the destination MAC address with the previously
tracked source MAC address (MAC_A) for DPI device 1 and forwards the traffic to the DPI device 1.
FIGURE 33 Pass-through flow management example
In the following configuration example, the untagged port-based VLANs 3 and 4 allow the ports to
send IP packets to each other through the virtual routing interfaces VE 3 and VE 4. The flow-mgmt
stick-to-sender command in routing interface VE 3 enables the tracking of the source MAC address
on incoming pass-through traffic and sends the return traffic to the MAC address that transmitted
the request.
vlan 3 by port
untagged ethe 1 ethe 2
router-interface ve 3
!
vlan 4 by port
untagged ethe 4
router-interface ve 4
!
!
interface ve 3