Can I have some suggestions on how to load balance servers that are on
seperate IP blocks? Is there any way to perform translation at this
level? Exclude DNS based balancing please...
Take a look at Nortel's Alteon product line, Cisco's CSS product line, or
F5's BigIP Product Line. All of which have Global Server Load Balancing
capability. The GSLB can be done a number of different ways on these
boxes including stupid DNS tricks (not your typical round robin stuff, but
still DNS) and using a BGP configuration.
Hope this helps!
allan
I second this suggestion. I worked briefly at F5 Networks in 2001 and
was responsible for supporting Big-IP and 3DNS. Both are very nice
products, but NOT cheap.
-J.
vrrp on FreeBSD is supposed to be a free solution to allow machines to
watch each other and take over IP addressing if connectivity is lost.
Depending on how remote your IP blocks are and how much control you have
over the routing equipment in between, your only choice may be a
commercial solution.
http://www.bsdshell.net/hut_vrrpimpl.html
I've not used it, and the documentation is currently in French.
The HUT project also has FreeBSD load balancing software for free that is
supposed to function like F5/Alteon/Cisco LB.
I've maintained the Cisco CS 1100 (when it was Arrowpoint) in production.
You could VLAN remote machines into what you want to do on that. I think
that equipment has changed quite a bit though since Cisco bought them and
my experience is over a year old.
G
Two things to keep in mind: VRRP is not a load balancing solution, it is a
failover solution and (AFAIK) VRRP only operates within-network.
allan
Don't forget pen, which runs on FreeBSD (and even NT according to the
author).
It's not for the enterprise, but does provide simple load-balancing for
people who can't afford a proper switch.
Andy
Two things to keep in mind: VRRP is not a load balancing solution, it is a
failover solution
You are very correct sir. 
The load balancing part from the same
project is:
http://www.bsdshell.net/hut_loadd.html
and (AFAIK) VRRP only operates within-network.
I haven't seen anything that said one way or another on this part. I think
we would have to know more about the network that is considering deploying
this to know if the IP addressing could be re-routed to the backup
interface that comes up in the event of a failure.
G
I've used them all fairly heavily, except the Foundry gear. Alteon's my
personal fave. Biggest problem with the F5: hard drive. In my book,
that means you instantly need two, doubling the price.
For price concerns, tho, just check ebay. $13k AD3s for $2500...don't
say nothing good came from the dotcom crash.
John