Riverstone Networks WICT1-12 - Manual (Page 499)

Riverstone Networks RS Switch Router User Guide Release 8.0 22-1
22 WEB HOSTING CONFIGURATION
Accessing information on websites for both work or personal purposes is becoming a normal practice for an
increasing number of people. For many companies, fast and efficient web access is important for both external
customers who need to access the company websites, as well as for users on the corporate intranet who need to
access Internet websites.
The following features on the RS provide ways to improve web access for external and internal users:
• Load balancing allows incoming HTTP requests to a company’s website to be distributed across
several physical servers. If one server should fail, other servers can pick up the workload.
• Web caching allows HTTP requests from internal users to Internet sites to be redirected to
cached Web objects on local servers. Not only is response time faster since requests can be
handled locally, but overall WAN bandwidth usage is reduced.
Note Load balancing and web caching can be performed using application
software. However, the
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can perform these functions much faster as the
redirection is handled by specialized hardware.
22.1 LOAD BALANCING
You can use the load balancing feature on the RS to distribute session load across a group of servers. If you
configure the RS to provide load balancing, client requests that go through the RS can be redirected to any one of
several predefined hosts. With load balancing, clients access servers through a virtual IP address. The RS
transparently redirects the requests with no change required on the clients or servers; all configuration and
redirection is done on the RS.
Following are the steps in configuring load balancing on the RS:
1. Create a logical group of load balancing servers and define a virtual IP address for the group.
2. Define the servers in the group.
3. Specify optional operating parameters for the group of load balancing servers or for individual
servers in the group.