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TrainerBob's avatar
TrainerBob
Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
Dec 20, 2023

Packet Based LB vs Connection Based LB

In the 301a exam blueprint it says we should be able to "distinguish between packet based versus connection based load balancing" and to demonstrate when to use each of them.

Does anyone know what this is? I'm not having any luck finding documentation about these classifications of load balancing within F5. Are they talking about half proxy vs full proxy or maybe something else? But this is on the VS side, not the LB side within the pool.

I also thought, maybe they're talking about the use of persistence vs no persistence which would ensure the session stays with the same destination after LB takes place. Any ideaas on this? 

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  • PeteWhite's avatar
    PeteWhite
    Icon for Employee rankEmployee
    Dec 20, 2023

    There are a few things here - as you say there is the standard VS vs the Performance L4 VS. In the first instance, it is full-proxy depending on which profiles are added ie connection based, in the second this is packet based. There is also datagramLB for UDP where each packet is treated as separate versus being part of a flow.