FortiSwitch-5003B system
Enhanced Load Balance Clustering (ELBC)
FortiSwitch-5003B System Guide
01-400-134822-20120216
15
http://docs.fortinet.com/
Fabric 10-gigabit switching within a chassis
Figure 3
represents two FortiSwitch-5003B boards installed in slots 1 and 2 and a
FortiGate-5001B board installed in slot 4 in a chassis (for clarity the chassis is not
shown).
Using these components a chassis could provide 10-gigabit connectivity between the
Internet and a private internal network. In the Figure, the Internet is connected to the
FortiSwitch-5003B board in chassis slot 1 and the private internal network is connected
to the FortiSwitch-5003B board in chassis slot 2. Traffic between these networks is
switched across the chassis backplane to the FortiGate-5001B board for security
processing.
Figure 3: Example 10-gigabit connection between a private internal network and the
Internet
Enhanced Load Balance Clustering (ELBC)
You can install one or two FortiSwitch-5003B boards and multiple FortiGate-5001B
boards (called worker boards) in a FortiGate-5000 chassis to create an ELBC cluster. An
ELBC cluster load balances network traffic across the worker boards in the cluster
resulting in a network security solution that provides very high throughput. ELBC clusters
are also scalable because you can add more worker boards to the cluster without
disrupting network traffic. Also, if one of the FortiGate units in the cluster fails, the traffic it
was processing is re-distributed to the other worker boards in the cluster, resulting in only
minimal service interruption.
In an ELBC configuration the FortiSwitch-5003B board applies a load balancing
algorithm against the source and/or destination address of received packets to generate
a hash key. Each worker board has hash key values assigned to it and packets are
forwarded to the worker blade assigned to the same hash key. If a worker board enters or
leaves the cluster the hash keys are re-calculated and re-distributed so that all boards in
the cluster receive a consistent amount of traffic.
1
Internal 10-gigabit
network connected
to fabric channel 2
Fabric channel 1
10 Gigabit Data
Communication
Fabric channel 2
10 Gigabit Data
Communication
FortiGate-5001B
Board Installed in
chassis slot 4
External 10-gigabit
network connected
to fabric channel 1
Slot 1
Slot 2
Slot 4
