SoftLayer Fundamentals

Load Balancing

July, 2014

What is Load balancing?

Problems:
Too much traffic to a
single Web server
causes the site to
go offline.
Having only 1 web
server is a single
point of failure.

Solution:
Replicate web site
content to multiple
servers (service
pool) and use a
network device (LB)
in front of these
servers to
impersonate the
address of the
website and redirect
page requests only
to healthy members
of the service pool.

IBM Confidential
Course materials may not be reproduces in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

2014 IBM Corporation

Types of Load balancing on Softlayer

Single DataCenter

Single DataCenter

Multiple DataCenters
3

IBM Confidential
Course materials may not be reproduces in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

2014 IBM Corporation

Single DataCenter

Local Load Balancing ->

Local Load
Balancing

Dedicated Load
Balancer with
SSL - 2600

Dedicated Load
Balancer with
SSL 6600

Multitenant
Proxy pass
traffic through LB
Single VIP
Connections/Sec
Up to Layer4
SSL Offloading
Optional
Good fit for less
than 5000
connections/sec

Single Tenant
Proxy
One VIP
assigned but can
have a few more
HA Option
Up to Layer4
15,000
Connections*
1+ VIP

Single Tenant
Proxy
One VIP but can
have a few more
Up to Layer4
HA Option
100,000
Connections*
1+ VIP

Shared
Low volumes
4

Dedicated
High volumes

Netscaler VPX
GUI interface
Public and
Private Network
HA optional
Up to Layer7
Can use Static
and Portable IPs

Dedicated
High volumes
Layer 7 balancing

IBM Confidential
Course materials
may
not
be
reproduces
in
whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
4

2014 IBM Corporation

Use Case: Local Load Balancing

Computer

DNS
Process

Load Balancer
(lbsjc.softlayerportaldemo.com)

Web3.softlayerportaldemo.com
Web1.softlayerportaldemo.com
Web2.softlayerportaldemo.com

IBM Confidential
Course materials may not be reproduces in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

2014 IBM Corporation

Global Load Balancing ->

Multiple DataCenters

Global
Loadbalancer
DNS
Requests/Sec
Does not Pass
traffic; only
responds to
DNS requests
For
Datacenter to
Datacenter
Loadbalancing

Shared
DNS route
6

IBM Confidential
Course materials
may
not
be
reproduces
in
whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
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2014 IBM Corporation

Use Case: Global Load Balancing

Global
Loadbalancer
DNS Process

Computer

Load Balancer

web1

web2
San Jose

Web4
Washington

IBM Confidential
Course materials may not be reproduces in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

2014 IBM Corporation

Load Balancer Options: All

Local Load
Balancing
Multitenant
Proxy pass
traffic through LB
Single VIP
Connections/Sec
Up to Layer4
SSL Offloading
Optional
Good fit for less
than 5000
connections/sec

Dedicated Load
Balancer with SSL
- 2600

Dedicated Load
Balancer with SSL
6600

Single Tenant
Proxy
One VIP assigned
but can have a
few more
HA Option
Up to Layer4
15,000
Connections*
1+ VIP

Single Tenant
Proxy
One VIP but can
have a few more
Up to Layer4
HA Option
100,000
Connections*
1+ VIP

Global
Loadbalancer
DNS
Requests/Sec
Does not Pass
traffic; only
responds to DNS
requests
For Datacenter to
Datacenter
Loadbalancing

IBM Confidential
Course materials may not be reproduces in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

Netscaler VPX
GUI interface
Public and Private
Network
HA optional
Up to Layer7
Can use Static
and Portable IPs

2014 IBM Corporation

Easy to order
Pay per connection per second

Datacenter Loadbalancer

Netscaler VPX

Global Loadbalancer

IBM Confidential
Course materials may not be reproduces in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

2014 IBM Corporation

References
http://www.softlayer.com/load-balancing

https://w3-connections.ibm.com/wikis/home?lang=enus#!/wiki/Wb39726536f17_4b0c_85ea_df1aadd645c1/page/SoftLayer%20Nuggets%20%20Bite%20Sized%20Information%20about%20SoftLayer
https://w3-connections.ibm.com/files/app#/file/67e5ace7-2757-4f8f-b122-518e0e38db5e
https://w3-connections.ibm.com/wikis/home?lang=en-us#!/wiki/34202a37-d2f0-4880bfc8-a3d32a2a36d1/page/f7fd2b40-9592-41ab-8fb4-fc2e36c03050/attachment

10

IBM Confidential
Course materials may not be reproduces in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

2014 IBM Corporation

11

IBM Confidential
Course materials may not be reproduces in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.

2014 IBM Corporation