Products: Load-Balancing Routers
Load-balancing routers can be implemented various ways, and at various levels of the networking protocol stack. OES suggests using the Linux Virtual Server (LVS) technology, which routes data at the TCP level.
Using LVS satisfies all of the stated requirements:
- High Throughput. LVS clusters are limited by the available LAN bandwidth (usually 100 Mbps), which is fast enough for even the highest loads seen in the industry.
- High Availability. Open source technologies used with LVS are capable of monitoring and smartly handling problem events which happen to the server cluster. For more information, please see the LVS web page about high availability.
- Flexibility. Since LVS operates at the TCP/IP level of the networking stack, all TCP/IP-based services will be compatible, including web services (HTTP and HTTPS), email (SMTP, POP3, and IMAP), and databasing (LDAP, ODBC, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL).
- Transparancy. Persistant connections are a design feature of the LVS system. LVS has well-established support for persistant connections for protocols such as FTP and HTTP. For more information, please see the LVS documentation about persistance.
Furthermore, LVS provides the following advantages over alternative products or methods:
- Compatibility. LVS routers are compatible with servers using any operating system or software based on TCP/IP networking. This includes every major Internet software product, such as Linux, Unix, and Windows operating systems and their associated applications.
- Freedom. LVS is free software. As part of the Linux operating system kernel, you can be sure that your technology will always remain under your control. Furthermore, since the LVS source code is available to you, you may customize LVS to any degree to fit your needs.
- Cost. LVS is available at no cost. However, the LVS technology is industry-proven. LVS is used in TurboLinux's Cluster Server, and Red Hat's Linux Clustering Solution; and LVS is used to deploy several of the Internet's high-profile websites (please see the deployment page).