For more information regarding the security incident at F5, the actions we are taking to address it, and our ongoing efforts to protect our customers, click here.

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
Version 1.0
acceleration
application acceleration
application delivery
availability
BIG-IP
hardware
http
internet
ip
load-balancing
Lori_MacVittie1's avatar
Lori_MacVittie1
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Feb 24, 2010
@dave

 

 

You assertion that: "load balancer can't use load-adaptive feedback balancing algorithms because it can't deduce origin state other than by heuristics" is incorrect. Modern load balancers are capable of integrating with servers and applications and subsequently leveraging their state in dynamic load balancing algorithms.

 

 

As far as compression on the origin server, it's inefficient and uses excessive CPU cycles. See: this post and included references re: CPU utilization, RAM, and impact on the origin server.

 

 

Lori