Question

Cisco Load balance & redundancy for Internet service

Asked by: isltt

I would like to add load balancing and redundancy capability to my internet connection. I have approx. 450 internet users on a checkpoint active-active firewall cluster. I have a 256K leased line which is used only for external users to access our web servers. I also have a DSL T1, which is used for internal  use: web browsing, email, etc.

I wish to load balance and have redundancy built into my system in the event of an ISP or router failure. I would prefer to keep the leased line link for external users separate at this time and focus on load balance/redundancy for my internal users ie T1 DSL.

Before I purchase, I would like recommendations on the network design - what cisco router or switch/router and IOS features I would need to achieve this and some technical details on how it will work

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Asked On
2007-04-16 at 02:03:18ID22513179
Tags

cisco

,

load

,

redundancy

,

balancing

Topics

Network Routers

,

Checkpoint Firewall

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: lrmoorePosted on 2007-04-16 at 05:31:19ID: 18917115

I would suggest something like the FatPipes Superstream
http://www.fatpipeinc.com/superstream/index.html

 

by: islttPosted on 2007-04-17 at 03:21:39ID: 18923231

Looks good and seems that 'Warp' can somehow play a part. I'm a bit cautious as it's not a 'mainstream' solution - what advantages would fatpipe have over a cisco based solution.

Also, My general (regardless of vendor) concerns are:
In the event that ISPA or ISPB fails - will the fail-over be transparent & automatic?
Typically with cable & DSL internet connections, the ethernet interface connecting the router remains 'up' even though the service itself might have failed - How does the appliance/solution detect & fail-over in such a situation?
The internet connections will be from two different ISPs. Are there any DNS and/or NAT issues that I may need to consider?
Will there be performance issues for applications like voip & streaming video for load balancing eg associated with out of order packets
Is there any change required on the ISP configuration - as is the case with BGP

 

by: DooglavePosted on 2007-04-17 at 18:16:20ID: 18928676

If you using IPSO, Linux, or SecurePlatform as the OS on your Check Point Cluster you can configure ISP Redundancy withing check point, and even configure Load Sharing.

What version are you running.

You should see it on your Cluster Object under Topology, click on the plus to expand Topology and ISP Redundancy will show up.

 

by: islttPosted on 2007-04-18 at 03:07:43ID: 18930492

Dooglave
I'll check out the version info - How 'clean' would this solution be though for redundancy..I imagine the routers & ADSL modem would have to 'signal' to checkpoint that the link is down unless the load sharing component makes that a non-issue

 

by: islttPosted on 2007-04-18 at 03:20:51ID: 18930529

Dooglave - also...after doing some checks it seems the load balance feature will be extremely difficult to implement & may have functional & performance issues
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Security/Software_Firewalls/Q_21624408.html?qid=21624408.

 

by: DooglavePosted on 2007-05-08 at 14:39:41ID: 19053252

I didn't know as I have never set it up my self. I spoke to a peer and he said that it works great, ISP Redundancy.  That the only issue to work around is NAT.  There is documentation on how to set it up in the Check Point ClusterXL guide under the chapter heading, "Configuring ISP Redundancy on a Cluster"

 

by: RobSilverPosted on 2010-03-29 at 08:00:13ID: 28989013

This is an old post.  However, for the sake of users viewing this, Microsoft TMG 2010 supports this functionality.

Here's how I implemented it:

http://robsilver.org/isatmg/isp-redundancy-made-easy/

Hope this helps,

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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