CH
A

P

T

E

R
7-1
User
Guide

for

the

Cisco

Application

Networking

Manager

5.2
OL-26572-01
7
Configuring
Virtual

Servers
Date:
3/

28/12
This
chapter

describes

how

to

configure

virtual

servers

for

load

balancing

on

the

Cisco

Application
Control
Engine

(ACE)

using

Cisco

Application

Networking

Manager

(ANM).
Note
When
naming

ACE

objects

(such

as

a

real

server,

virtual

server,

parameter

map,

class

map,

health

probe,
and
so

on),

enter

an

alphanumeric

string

of

1

to

64

characters,

which

can

include

the

following

special
characters:
underscore

(_),

hyphen

(-),

dot

(.),

and

asterisk

(*)

.

Spaces

ar

e

not


al

lowed.


If
you

are

using

ANM

with

an

ACE

module

or

ACE

appliance

and

you

configure

a

named

object

at

the
ACE
CLI,

keep

in

mind

that

ANM

does

not

support

all

of

the

special

characters

that

the

ACE

CLI

allows
you
to

use

when

configuring

a

named

object.

If

you

use

special

characters

that

ANM

does

not

support,
you
may

not

be

able

to

import

or

manage

the

ACE

using

ANM.
This
chapter

includes

the

following

sections:

•
Information
About

Load

Balancing,

page
7-1

•
Configuring
Virtual

Servers,

page
7-2

•
Managing
Virtual

Servers,

page
7-66

•
Deploying
Virtual

Servers,

page
7-86
Information
About

Load

Balancing
Server
load

balancing

(SLB)

is

the

process

of

deciding

to

which

server

a

load

balancer

should

send

a
client
request

for

service.

For

example,

a

client

request

can

consist

of

an

HTTP

GET

for

a

web

page

or
an
FTP

GET

to

download

a

f
ile.

The

load

balancer

selects

the

server

that

can

successfully

fulfill

the

client
request
and

in

the

shortest

amount

of

time

without

overloading

either

the

server

or

the

server

farm

as

a
whole.
Depending
on

t

he

load-balancing

al

gorithm

or

predictor

that

you

c

onfigure,

the

ACE

performs

a

se

ries
of
checks

and

calculations

to

determine

the

server

that

can

best

service

each

client

request.

The

ACE
bases
server

selection

on

several

factors,

including

the

server

with

the

fewest

connections

with

respect
to
load,

source

or

destination

address,

cookies,

URLs,

or

HTTP

headers.
ANM
al

lows

you

t

o

configure

load

balancing

using:

•
Virtual
servers—See
Configuring
Virtual

Servers,

page
7-2
.