Network load balancing across network traffic ports - is this possible 1

[stla]

(Please note, very elementary user)

I have a fresh installation of Red Hat Linux 5 Enterprise out of the box.

The (single) server hardware has two gigabit ethernet ports each with its own IP number.

Have I understood correctly, that it is possible to create a virtual IP address that incorporates the two static IP addresses of the ports and will load balance the traffic accordingly?

1) Is this a very complex task?
2) Is additional software necessary?

Best regards

 

[thedaver]

Uh, why would you want to load balance traffic into a single point of service/failure?

To answer your question: The network equipment before the server would be responsible for load balancing decisions before it hit either of your server's ports.

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[RhythmAce]

I think this task is above the expertise of the "elementary user". However, to answer your questions, there are both hardware and software solutions. Although the software version are not as robust as its hardware counterpart, its also not as expensive. Both involve the setting up and configuring of clusters. It sounds to me that you are talking about one machine. If this is the case, then this is not the way to go. As thedaver points out, why go through all this only to have everything end up in the same place? You mentioned virtual ip addresses. Is there a chance you are talking about multi-homing?

 

[stla]

Thank you both for your replies.

Well, to elaborate a little more on this, the new (single) server is to replace an SGI running IRIX. This has a software called NLB. I have copied the description of the man page below.

To reformulate my question; is it possible to do the same thing using RHL5?

Best regards

----------IRIX man page ---------------------
nlb(7)

NAME

nlb - IP Network Load Balancing Driver

DESCRIPTION

The IP Network Load Balancing driver is a pseudo-device which allows IP
load to be distributed across multiple physical network interfaces. The
physical interfaces currently supported are 10BaseT, 100BaseT and Gigabit
ethernet.

IP packets are directed out a physical interface based on the source and
destination IP addresses and the source and destination UDP or TCP port
numbers. Non-IP packets are directed out the first configured interface
(i.e., the first one in the list provided to lbconfig).

To the user, applications, and other systems, the load balancing device
appears to be a normal network interface.

 

[RhythmAce]

Sorry. I was thinking you were a noob looking to do this on a home network. I don't think RHEL comes with NLB but there are a few tools out there. One in particular is simply called "Balance". Here is an article that explains how to install it from a tarball. It also has a link to where you can download it.

http://www.linux.com/articles/46735