Question about Load Balancing 1

[cisco99999]

Hello guys,

Hope this is a right section to ask. I have a share storage server (4TB) run on a dual processor machine, let's call server1 and has this ip 10.10.0.5. I have a another machine that identical server1, let's call server2 and has ip 10.10.0.6.
I like to have load balancing on both servers, so if server1 fails then server2 will take over. Or 50% of load will be on server1 and 50% of load on server2. What is cisco load balancing equipments to start with ? I'd like to have something around $500 or less. Currently I have 1 cisco 2811, 2 cisco 2621xm , couple Cat 2950 series. Thanks

By the way, can cisco local director 430 do the job above ?

 

[burtsbees]

Several things need to be answered...first off, are these both hooked to a SAN switch? If so, what sort of controller? What OS on the servers? For failover, these are likely to be somehow configured on the servers or the SAN switch controller (if one exists). Answer these questions and we'll go from there. Also, what kind of servers?

Burt

 

[cisco99999]

>are these both hooked to a SAN switch?If so, what sort of controller?
Nope, They are both connecting to switch.
Server1:
Xserve RAID (4TB) connects Xserve(Server) thru Fibre channel. Then Xserve connects to switch

>What OS on the servers?
Mac OS Server Leopard

>For failover, these are likely to be somehow configured on >the servers or the SAN switch controller (if one exists). >Answer these questions and we'll go from there.
>Also, what kind of servers?
File sharing server.

 

[burtsbees]

Well, if nothing is controlling failover, then it looks like you'll need to have both servers do the same thing, configured the same way, and just load balance by connecting to a Catalyst 2950 that you have. Back with more in a bit...

Burt

 

[cisco99999]

I'm really appreciate your outputs here, but whenever you have time please put how to configure load balance with cat 2950. Thanks alot.

 

[cisco99999]

i meant put=post

 

[jneiberger]

Cisco has some old load balancing gear called Local Director. Some of their newer switches have a load balancing feature called SLB that is similar to Local Director. Cisco also has some very different load balancing equipment--the CSS 11500 series--that is pretty good. However, if you're thinking of buying load balancing equipment specifically for this task, I would *highly* recommend the Big IP from F5. It beats the pants off the Cisco stuff.

 

[cisco99999]

I have heard about CSS 11500 but never heard about SLB. By the way, they're all too expensive for me right now. Will cisco Local Director work for me ?

 

[jneiberger]

Local Director would probably work, but it's really old and is probably unsupported now. You might be able to find a use one somewhere, but I don't know what sort of support you can expect from Cisco. You should probably look around for some documentation on it and see if it does exactly what you need.

 

[jneiberger]

It appears that there are several available on the popular Internet auction site that we all know. I'm not sure if it's allowable here to post links to it. Go there and search for LocalDirector (one word) and you'll see plenty of hits.

 

[jneiberger]

Here is some more info for you about LocalDirector:

http://cco.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/iaabu/localdir/ld20rns/ldicgd/index.htm