Integrated Load Balancer (Overview)

This chapter describes the Integrated Load Balancer (ILB), a feature of Oracle Solaris. ILB provides Layer 3 and Layer 4 load-balancing capabilities for Oracle Solaris installed on SPARC and x86 based systems. ILB intercepts incoming requests from clients, decides which back-end server should handle the request based on load-balancing rules, and then forwards the request to the selected server. ILB performs optional health checks and provides the data for the load-balancing algorithms to verify if the selected server can handle the incoming request. By performing the above functionalities, ILB spreads work load directed to the server across multiple servers. This can improve reliability, minimize response time and in general improve performance of the server.

The following topics are discussed:

• ILB Features

• ILB Components

• ILB Operation Modes

• How ILB Works?

• ILB Algorithms

• Service Management Facility

• ILB Command-Line Interface