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fubarSUSHI's avatar
fubarSUSHI
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Feb 27, 2015

Load balancing two ISPs? With GTM or LTM?

Im assisting with an installation but Im trying to find a method to load balance two ISPs. We purchased a GTM license but everything looks like it should be done with an LTM that is on the outside perimeter.

 

Can anyone share any knowledge on how to start this project? Any links? Im currently reading as much as I can but I was truly hoping to see an article that had an A to Z approach. I realize I am asking for alot but I might as well ask.

 

12 Replies

    • fubarSUSHI's avatar
      fubarSUSHI
      Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus
      Thank you for your response. In this case, the license is the "better" one so I believe that comes with LTM and GTM. So, it sounds like I can accomplish both. I personally thought link controller was another type of license but it sounds like I can create a link controller like scenario for this context.
  • @Brian R. said it well - very similar to link controller (but hopefully easier/better because LC is like LTM+GTM lite)

     

    also check out https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/ltm-implementations-11-1-0/2.html

     

    Outbound ISP load-balancing uses LTM, inbound ISP load-balancing is DNS-based and uses GTM. Each public site that you want to load-balance between the ISPs will have a unique IP address in each ISPs public space, and the GTM will load balance by resolving the name to its address in either ISP space

     

    • fubarSUSHI's avatar
      fubarSUSHI
      Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus
      tyvm for your time. I havent read the article yet but I just wanted to ask a quick question... could I route traffic based upon type? In other words... web traffic goes isp1 while app traffic goes isp2?
    • Max_Q_factor's avatar
      Max_Q_factor
      Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
      I assume when you say web traffic you mean outbound client traffic? and app traffic is internet initiated services traffic? That is very common, in GTM you will want to setup a global availability load balancing for the internet initiated services traffic and a simple priority group in the LTM for the outbound client based internet access.
    • fubarSUSHI's avatar
      fubarSUSHI
      Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus
      @Brian - correct. Im referencing outbound traffic only. I guess maybe I can call it "traffic shaping" but that might be the inappropriate 'cisco' term. For all egress traffic... if I want http based egress traffic to use isp1 and all non-http based egress traffic to use isp2. For ingress traffic... it sounds like you hit the nail on the head and I thank you for pointing link controller to me. Ingress traffic I am looking to use isp1 as my main connection and isp2 will be failover. I believe the GTM "dns" aspect should take care of this using cname records. And I always thought GTM is for 2 DCs only versus using it as such. In the DNS portion... I will need to get my DNS provider to allow the GTM to be authoritative for a sub-domain. I assume I will need to use two name servers 1 for isp1 and 2 for isp2 and put them in a pool for the GTM side correct?
  • shaggy's avatar
    shaggy
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus

    @Brian R. said it well - very similar to link controller (but hopefully easier/better because LC is like LTM+GTM lite)

     

    also check out https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/ltm-implementations-11-1-0/2.html

     

    Outbound ISP load-balancing uses LTM, inbound ISP load-balancing is DNS-based and uses GTM. Each public site that you want to load-balance between the ISPs will have a unique IP address in each ISPs public space, and the GTM will load balance by resolving the name to its address in either ISP space

     

    • fubarSUSHI's avatar
      fubarSUSHI
      Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus
      tyvm for your time. I havent read the article yet but I just wanted to ask a quick question... could I route traffic based upon type? In other words... web traffic goes isp1 while app traffic goes isp2?
    • Max_Q_factor's avatar
      Max_Q_factor
      Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
      I assume when you say web traffic you mean outbound client traffic? and app traffic is internet initiated services traffic? That is very common, in GTM you will want to setup a global availability load balancing for the internet initiated services traffic and a simple priority group in the LTM for the outbound client based internet access.
    • fubarSUSHI's avatar
      fubarSUSHI
      Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus
      @Brian - correct. Im referencing outbound traffic only. I guess maybe I can call it "traffic shaping" but that might be the inappropriate 'cisco' term. For all egress traffic... if I want http based egress traffic to use isp1 and all non-http based egress traffic to use isp2. For ingress traffic... it sounds like you hit the nail on the head and I thank you for pointing link controller to me. Ingress traffic I am looking to use isp1 as my main connection and isp2 will be failover. I believe the GTM "dns" aspect should take care of this using cname records. And I always thought GTM is for 2 DCs only versus using it as such. In the DNS portion... I will need to get my DNS provider to allow the GTM to be authoritative for a sub-domain. I assume I will need to use two name servers 1 for isp1 and 2 for isp2 and put them in a pool for the GTM side correct?
  • Guys, just to confirm, does a BIGIP with a "better" license (LTM+GTM) enable all of the Link Controller features? The reason why I am asking is that when I add the ISP links on the system, which I am trying to configure, I get "Monitor /Common/bigip_link from : no reply from big3d: timed out" as soon as I try to add the bigip_link monitor to that link and I have been struggling for hours to identify a cause for that. At this point, I am starting to wonder if the link controller config guide is not really relevant to a system with an LTM+GTM license? Hopefully that is not the case.

     

  • ...actually, it looks like the gateway_icmp monitor causes the link to show is offline with the same message (no reply from big3d: timed out).