Technical data

Introduction to VSX Clusters
Check Point VSX Administration Guide NGX R67 | 86
Note - The following virtual devices are not supported when the Per
Virtual System state is enabled:
Virtual Routers
Virtual Switches without physical or VLAN interfaces
Virtual System Load Sharing (VSLS)
VSX clusters can efficiently balance your network traffic load by distributing active virtual systems amongst
cluster members. This capability is known as Virtual System Load Sharing (VSLS), and provides the
following benefits:
Capacity: VSLS leverages the cluster machines to handle greater network volume by efficiently
distributing the load.
Redundancy: VSLS provides full redundancy by maintaining connectivity for all Virtual Systems even
when individual members fail.
Scalability: VSLS provides linear scalability for throughput and session rate.
Cost Effectiveness: A VSLS cluster uses standard network switches to achieve cost effective load
sharing.
Ease of Configuration: Virtual Systems are automatically distributed among all the cluster members -
no special configuration is required.
Priority Designation: Mission-critical Virtual Systems can be separated from the other Virtual Systems,
providing advantages in terms of bandwidth and resources.
System Scalability: Every cluster member added to the cluster increases the overall system capacity
and redundancy.
Note - The following virtual devices are not supported when the Per
Virtual System state is enabled:
Virtual Routers
Virtual Switches without physical or VLAN interfaces
Requirements
VSLS requires Check Point ClusterXL.
VSLS requires that all Virtual Systems in all cluster members have direct connectivity with each other.
Connectivity must be accomplished using switches or VLAN connections. This is required for detecting
and assigning Virtual System states.
VSLS does not support Virtual Routers.
Conceptual Overview
This section presents a detailed conceptual overview of ClusterXL Virtual System Load Sharing.
Introduction
Virtual System Load Sharing (VSLS) for VSX differs from physical cluster load sharing, in that it is not
connection-based. Rather, its modus operandi is to distribute active Virtual Systems to different cluster
members, and then direct traffic for particular Virtual System to the cluster member containing the active
Virtual System. This is useful in balanced configurations, where the desire is to simply spread the load
equally, and in mission-critical deployments, where reserving bandwidth for a particular Virtual System is a
priority.