Re: Replacement to CSS

It is interesting to see all the people from different vendors 
jumping in here to suggest to use their own product. I could do the 
same of course but this is not going to help anybody. Ed's and Ken's 
replies are what I would call the best ones. It is HTTP load 
balancing from what I get out of the original Q - it can not be 
simpler. Every vendor should be able to do this and the base feature 
set is going to be similar from my point of view.

Ed's summary below is pretty good. Think about the features you NEED 
and do not look at all the nice stuff around. Have a look at your 
setup and the setup you would like to have at the end of the day...

How many ports do you need?
Do you need 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps ports?
Do you need copper or fiber ports?
What is expected load?
Do I need SSL acceleration to keep some stuff away from my servers? 
(or is it close to 0 SSL traffic and the real servers are able to 
handle this easily)

This is the easy part of the story. Think about the features you need 
to get a solution which fits to your needs. Some things which come to 
my mind looking at HTTP:

Do you need a Web Application Firewall?
Do you need HTTP compression offload?
Do you need Layer 7 switching?

Think about your potential requirements in 2 years (more does not 
make any sense)

Are you going to move to 10 Gbps in your core network?
How many ports to you need in 2 years?
Do you want to have the possibility to add more processing power later on?
Do you need the possibility to add features like SSL or so later on 
because this type of traffic could be more important in a 12 - 24 
months timeframe?

Get together with at least two vendors and have a look at their 
suggestions. Ask for an evaluation of the units and get a Systems 
Engineer to help you to set it up. Go for the vendor with the best 
story and the product which fits to your needs and with the best look 
and feel from your point of view.

A solution is only acceptable if you are happy with it - you have to 
work with it @ a daily basis. Is not that the case?

I am of course working for a vendor offering ADCs and it is of course 
the best vendor you can buy as long as we fit to your needs but that 
is not always the case.

Good luck!

- Oliver
Systems Engineer L4-7 @ Brocade



  At 02:09 14.07.2009, Ed Toro wrote:
>As you can see, there are many people who would love to sell you a 
>solution. :-)
>
>I would suggest a few things:
>
>1. List your business requirements in must-have/nice-to-have 
>categories.Ignore "cool" features that are not on this list.
>2. Develop a test plan that will test load and functionality 
>concurrent with point number 1
>3. Do not purchase anything until you have it working in your 
>environment and passing all tests in point number 2. Also make sure 
>that what you are testing is what the vendor has priced out. They 
>sometimes try to sneak in a higher end device for testing then sell 
>you something less.
>4. Get vendor sales engineers to assist you. You might miss picking 
>the best solution because it was not configured correctly.
>5. Research the vendor's support history.
>6. Make sure vendors know you are testing other hardware and they 
>need to win your business.
>
>Concurrent with these items you need to get an idea of budget and 
>what the market can bear. You might find that the perfect solution 
>might be cost prohibitive. Don't invite vendors to the table with 
>solutions that are beyond your budget or you waste everybody's time 
>include you.
>
>
>
>
>
>Kamlesh Mungekar wrote:
>>We have css11505 load balancers  configured as a box-to-box
>>redundancy. We are thinking of moving away since they are almost
>>reaching end of life cycle.
>>Does anyone has any opinion which would be the best replacement for
>>it? We use load balanacer for webfarm load balancing.
>>Thanks!
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>
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