Radware's Web Server Director Pro (WSD) is a load-balancing appliance supporting up to 10,000 real servers. Whether via the CLI or Radware's intuitive Java application, ConfigWare, configuration of the WSD is effortless. Remote management and configuration is accomplished mainly via SNMP, the Web or telnet, though Hewlett-Packard Co.'s OpenView for Solaris can also be used to perform most tasks.
In our tests, configuring WSD to direct traffic based on port as well as URL went smoothly. The WSD performed well in all the tests, showing only a slight degradation in performance at Layer 7 as compared with Layer 4. Although AceDirector was able to handle a higher volume of traffic when configured at both Layers 4 and 7, WSD still managed to make a good showing in this area. Performance dropped from 117 transactions per second at Layer 4 to 94 transactions per second under a load of 2,000 clients. This degradation was comparable with that of CyberIQ's HyperCommerce, but not as exciting as the performance shown by AceDirector and Big-IP HA+ Controller, which both had an increase in performance from Layer 4 to 7.
One oddity to look out for if you choose this solution is that configuration and management are performed via a direct console connection. Most products use a setting of 9,600 bps, while WSD defaults to 19,200 bps. That left us scratching our heads one afternoon, that's for sure.
We would consider gigabit ports to be standard on any load-balancing device these days. Fortunately, the WSD offers eight Fast Ethernet ports and two Gigabit Ethernet ports for high-availability configurations.
Rules are based on four different options: host name, directory structure, file type and cookies embedded within a URL. This is quite a bit different from the functionality of AceDirector or Hydra2500, which provides a full URL search and includes the ability to do pattern matching and regular expressions. Most sites deliver content dynamically, which is therefore generally not used for decisions in load-balancing, so the lack of full URL searching in the WSD is not a detraction. Yet the ability to search the entire URL offers site designers more flexibility and is often a desired feature in a load-balancing solution.
Web Server Director Pro, $25,189 (including one year of support and installation), Radware, (888) 234-5763; fax (201) 512-9774. www.radware.com
Alteon WebSystems AceDirector 4
Outperforming its rivals, the AceDirector 4 screams whether it's directing traffic based on Layer 4 or Layer 7. The AceDirector, a switch-based solution, actually performed more transactions per second at Layer 7 than it did at Layer 4. This surprised us, so we ran the tests again, and got the same results. Showing an improvement in transactions per second under a load of 2,000 clients (from 321 transactions per second in Layer 4 to 354 transactions per second in Layer 7) and only a marginal degradation in transaction time (an average of 4.86 at Layer 4 to 5.09 at Layer 7), the AceDirector gets the thumbs up for performance.
The AceDirector offers global load-balancing support and provides eight Fast Ethernet and eight Gigabit Ethernet ports. Configuration and management via SNMP, the Web or CLI are straightforward. Alteon WebSystems' WebOS 8.0 is easy to navigate and a breeze to use for CLI configuration and management. Web-based configuration and management are available, though the Web-based GUI lacks the intuitiveness of Radware's ConfigWare.
Layer 7 functionality is provided either by matching an entire URL or via "substring" matches within a URL. Cookie and SSL session ID switching is also available. Rules are bound to a real server, which was annoying when we first configured the AceDirector for our Layer 7 tests. Each rule had to be bound to a server; for large sites, this particular task would grow unwieldy.
We'd like to see the company figure out a better way to do this. Binding a single rule to a group of real servers, which is the method used by F5's Big-IP HA+ Controller, would do the trick nicely.
Alteon WebSystems AceDirector 4, $22,500 (includes one year of support and on-site installation), Alteon WebSystems (Nortel Networks Content Distribution Business Unit), (888) 258-3662, (408) 360-5500; fax (408) 360-5762. www.alteonwebsystems.com
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