User guide

17-2 E
XTREME
W
ARE
S
OFTWARE
U
SER
G
UIDE
S
ERVER
L
OAD
B
ALANCING
(SLB)
O
VERVIEW
Server Load Balancing (SLB) is a feature of the switch that divides many client requests
among several servers. This is done transparently to the client trying to use the
resource. The main use for SLB is in the capacity of web hosting. Web hosting uses
several redundant servers to increase the performance and reliability of busy websites.
Using SLB, the switch can manage and balance traffic for client equipment such as web
servers, cache servers, routers, firewalls, and proxy servers. SLB has a variety of useful
features that meet the special needs of e-commerce sites, Internet service providers, and
managers of large intranets.
An introductory SLB application is shown in Figure 17-1.
Figure 17-1: Introductory SLB application
SLB C
OMPONENTS
There are three components that comprise an SLB system:
• Nodes
• Pools
• Virtual Servers
All three components are required for every SLB configuration.
EW_055
Clients
Stream 1
Servers
Stream 2
Stream 3
Stream 2
Stream 1
Stream 3