NLB Recommendations

Wed Jun 9 15:01:10 UTC 2004

Quoting James Baldwin <jbaldwin at antinode.net>:

>
> I'm looking for recommendations for network load balancers. These, at
> this time, will primarily be used to attach to a cluster of webservers
> although I would like a solution which can be repurposed to other
> applications later. I am looking at F5's Big IP, Cisco's SLB, and
> Foundry's ServerIron at this time.
>
>

I'd add the NetScaler (www.netscaler.com) to your list, especially for
webservers.  It has been very stable for us and the support we've received from
them has been top-notch.  They've really been working on expanding their
support for other protocols.

The F5 is probably my favorite box to work on, the CLI and the UI are both
fantastic.  Their platform is super-flexible and intuitive for unix people. 
The GUI is NOT java and is very easy to work with.  Their support has not been
as responsive as we get from NetScaler or Foundry, but they eventually get
things solved.

We used to have Cisco CSS 11800's in our environment... but after wrangling them
for over a year of intermittent outages with no solution from Cisco (other than
"Please upgrade to yet another $250k solution.") we started the search for
another platform.  Cisco's support is such that we're removing them from our
network entirely (pending budget, time and practicality.)

Tine Hutchison