Coyote Point Systems Equalizer GX Series, Administration Manual

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Overview of Clusters
A virtual cluster is a collection of server pools with a single network-visible IP address. All client
requests come into Equalizer through a cluster IP address, and are routed by Equalizer to an
appropriate server, according to the load balancing options set on the cluster. The figure below
shows a conceptual diagram of an Equalizer with three clusters.
Each cluster must be assigned at least one server pool, a grouping of real servers that will be
used to respond to incoming client requests. Servers in a server pool are called 'server instances',
to distinguish them from the real server definitions with which they are associated (refer to
"Managing Server Pools"
on page 430 for more information).
The parameters you specify when setting up a virtual cluster determine how client and server
connections are managed, and how requests are load balanced among the server instances in a
server pool.
Before beginning to define a cluster, you need to do the following:
1. Determine the IPaddresses to use for each cluster, and the IP addresses to use for all of
your real servers.
2. Determine the cluster types appropriate for your configuration.
Notes :
l
The Layer 4 TCP and UDP clusters can use only IPv4 cluster addresses and can only be used
with servers that have IPv4 addresses.
l
The Layer 7 TCP cluster is used to provide IPv6 addressing for Layer 4 protocols, and can
support IPv4 and IPv6 addressing for clusters and servers. The functionality is very much
like Layer 4 TCP clusters. This type of cluster should be used when IPv6 addressing is
required for a TCP protocol other than HTTP or HTTPS.
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Equalizer Administration Guide