Proportional Load Balancing

With the proportional load balancing algorithm, the Sun OpenDS Standard Edition proxy forwards requests across multiple routes to back-end LDAP servers or data sources, based on the proportions set. The proportion of requests handled by a route is identified by the weight that you set for each route in your configuration. The weight is represented as an integer value.

When you define your load balancing configuration in the Sun OpenDS Standard Edition proxy, you must indicate the proportion of requests handled by each LDAP server. In the example in Figure 4-3, Server 1 handles twice as many connections as Server 2, since the weight is set with a proportion of 2:1. Server 2 and Server 3 handle the same amount of requests (1:1).

Figure 4-3

Proportional Load Balancing Example

With the Sun OpenDS Standard Edition proxy, you can configure a specific weight for each type of client operation, as illustrated in Figure 4-4. For example, in you want Server 1 to handle all the Bind operations, this is possible. To do so, set the weight of bind to 1 (or higher) for Server 1, and to 0 for Server 2 and Server 3.

In the example illustrated in Figure 4-4, Server 1 will handle three times as many Add requests as Server 2 and Server 3. However, Server 1 will handle only one half the Search requests handled by Server 2, and Server 3. Server 2 and Server 3 will handle the same amount of Add and Search requests, but will not handle Bind requests.

Figure 4-4

Proportional Load Balancing with Request Specific Management

If you do not modify the weights of operations other than Bind, Add, and Search, as illustrated in Figure 4-4, the servers will share the same load for all other operations (for example for Delete operations).

For more information on configuring the load balancing weights of routes when using proportional load balancing, see Modifying the Load Balancing Route Properties in Sun OpenDS Standard Edition 2.2 Administration Guide.