Re: Load Balancing OAS: Kemp vs F5

Hi Ray,

I've worked a lot with both Cisco and F5 load balancers and like them both. I find the F5 to be a bit easier to configure for "normal" OAS admins as the Cisco device seemed to only be configurable by people with a lot of networking background. Unfortunately for me, most of the sites I've worked at have network admins that don't have a good grasp on Oracle's requirements (despite my attempts to teach). So, I'd have to recommend the F5. I've never heard of the other device you mention and as I've worked quite a lot with sites doing OAS clustering and load balancing, that's saying something. I've seen Nokia, Radware, Cisco, F5, Alteon, NetScalar (Now Citrix, I think), and Sonic Wall.

The information on the following URL may also be of interest. Oracle doesn't officially "certify" any load balancers, but they have at least published this list of tested devices.
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/hi_av/Tested_LBR_FW_SSLAccel.html

YMMV, but chosing from this list may get you at least a community of people that could help support you on specific issues. I know F5 and Oracle have jointly published a number of whitepapers on configuration details. Also, you'll find some indications on how well Oracle supports certain devices by whether or not they're listed in Appendix A of the Install guide for OAS 10.1.2 (and possibly other versions, this was just the version at my fingertips):
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14099_19/core.1012/b13998/sampleconfig.htm (Note: FWIW, the F5 sample config is really quite old--things changed drastically when they jumped from version 4.x to 9.x).

Good luck! I'd personally like to know what you end up choosing and why and what your implementation experience is like when you get that far.

Dan

Ray Feighery wrote:
> List
>
> I am investigating a suitable load balancer to use with a 2-node
> Oracle Application Server 10g Cluster.
>
> I have been recommended the F5 BigIP Local Traffic Manager 1500
> (http://www.f5.com/products/big-ip/product-modules/local-traffic-manager.html).
> However, this is considerably more expensive than other similar models
> such as the Kemp Technologies Load Master 1500
> (http://www.kemptechnologies.com/load-balancer-1500.shtml).
>
> Does anyone have any experience with either box that they could share
> or any recommendations to make?
>
> Thanks
>
> Ray
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