The Disadvantages of DSR (Direct Server Return)
I read a very nice blog post yesterday discussing some of the traditional pros and cons of load-balancing configurations. The author comes to the conclusion that if you can use direct server return, ...
Published Jul 03, 2008
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Lori_MacVittie
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I assume by transparent proxy you mean that traffic flows through the load balancer (which acts as a forwarding switch) even though it is deployed in a DSR configuration.
This would be similar to an L4 or L7 delayed binding scenario. Once the connection to the server is made, it simply forwards all requests/responses appropriately, but does not inspect the packets as they flow through the device. Because it is essentially acting as a bridging switch after the initial connection, all of the disadvantages apply.
If it's acting as a true (full) proxy, then you can avoid the disadvantages, but you can't deploy the load balancer in a DSR configuration because the connections are coming from the load balancer (it becomes the client as far as the server is concerned) and must return to the load balancer.
So I guess the short answer is "no", I'm not seeing a way to deploy DSR without incurring the disadvantages. :-)