suggestions about load-balance/cluster

[Jorge Pereira]

Hi,

   I would like to get opinions and suggestions about the best
approach to set a load-balance solution. At first I have a lot of
ideas but I am not sure if someone know another tips.
My goal is to have a setup prepared to manage hundreds of requests
between tens of NAS appliances (Redback, Cisco, Alcatel, ...) and also
being a proxy between some partners (external home servers)

My idea is:

1) Two servers positioned in the board exposed to the internet.

+----------------------+               +---------------------+
| Board-Radius A  |       &      | Board-Radius B |
+----------------------+               +---------------------+
            |_____________________|
                                |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|                   LAN (Cluster Zone)                      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| RadiusNode_1                                               |
| RadiusNode_2                                               |
|     ........                                                           |
| RadiusNode_N                                               |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+

My approach is: In the "board zone" would have less of possible
configuration, only related to load-balance like.

e.g: Board-Radius A & B:

<snip>
# AUTH+ACCT
home_server auth_node_1 {
    type = auth+acct
    ipaddr = 10.1.2.1
    port = 1812
    secret = secret
    require_message_authenticator = no
    response_window = 20
    zombie_period = 5
    revive_interval = 10
    status_check = status-server
    check_interval = 10
    num_answers_to_alive = 3
}

home_server auth_node_N {
    type = auth+acct
    ipaddr = 10.1.2.N
    port = 1812
    secret = secret
    # other options as last "auth_node_1"
}

home_server_pool auth_loadbalance {
     type = load-balance
     home_server = auth_node_1
     home_server = auth_node_N
     virtual_server = handle-node-auth
}
...
server handle-node-auth {
    pre-proxy {
        if (&Packet-Type == Accounting-Request) {
            # keep a local copy of all acct packets
            detail
        }
        ...
    }
    post-proxy {
        ....
    }
}

# COA
home_server coa_node_1 {
    type = coa
    ipaddr = 10.1.2.1
    port = 3799
    secret = secret
    # other options as last "auth_node_1"
}

home_server coa_node_N {
    type = coa
    ipaddr = 10.1.2.N
    port = 3799
    secret = secret
    # other options as last "auth_node_1"
}

home_server_pool coa_loadbalance {
     type = load-balance
     virtual_server = handle-node-coa
     home_server = coa_node_1
     home_server = coa_node_N
}
...
server handle-node-coa {
    pre-proxy {
        ...
    }
    post-proxy {
        ....
    }
}

..................
# Partner settings (external)
home_server auth_partner1 {
   .....
}
home_server_pool pool_auth_partner1 {
    home_server = auth_partner1
   .....
}
home_server coa_partner1 {
   .....
}
home_server_pool pool_coa_partner1 {
   home_server = coa_partner1
   .....
}
realm partner1.com {
    auth_pool = pool_auth_partner1
    coa_pool = pool_coa_partner1
}

# default behavior for local realms.
realm NULL {
    type = radius
    auth_pool = auth_loadbalance
    coa_pool = coa_loadbalance
    secret  = secret
}

realm DEFAULT {
    type = radius
    auth_pool = auth_loadbalance
    coa_pool = coa_loadbalance
   secret = secret
}

realm mylocaldomain1.com {
    type = radius
    auth_pool = auth_loadbalance
    coa_pool = coa_loadbalance
    secret = secret
}
</snip>


Doubts: What the best approach based  in the "type" of the pool? Maybe
the "keyed-balance" sounds better? I really appreciate
all suggestions and tips about my approach.

Best regards,
----
Jorge Pereira