Fortinet FortiGSLB
Global Server Load Balancing Solution

Overview:

Global Server Load Balance (GSLB) Cloud is a DNS-based service that helps to ensure business continuity by keeping an application online and available when a local area experiences unexpected traffic spikes or network downtime.

GSLB enables you to deploy redundant resources around the globe to maintain the availability of your business critical applications.

Intelligent Traffic Management

FortiGSLB optimizes client requests for a specific domain by dynamically distributing the workload across virtual servers, data centers, and locations. You can route traffic to your network resources based on geography, server performance (CPU/memory) and load, measured client and network performance, weighted distributions, consistent (sticky) routing, and more.

Advanced Health Check

FortiGSLB Cloud monitors your application end points or your cloud services based on configurable health checks. All of your resources are monitored continuously in real-time. Customizable health checks let you choose your protocol and parameters, from simple ping to an Application layer-7 response content match.

Seamless failover to second closest service

• Zero software/hardware needed
• No hardware performance bottleneck
• Managed via web interface
• Integrated API with Fortinet family
• One-click GSLB: Automate on-premise FortiADC configuration to FortiGSLB via API

Highlights:

Autoscale solution:

• No hardware performance bottleneck
• Stackable license to increase performance
• Eliminates need to accurately estimate application volume in advance

Intelligent traffic management:

• Advance load balancing according to server/site availability
• Supports DNS services and load balancing-based application health

Improved performance:

• Deliver to closest servers based on geography
• Performance-based routing based on client-driven performance metrics
• Reduced latency and increased application responsiveness

Improved risk management:

• Automate detection and execution of failover services
• Customizable health checks with choice of protocols and parameters: Ping, DNS, TCP, HTTP/S, layer-7 Response code or content

How It Works:

FortiGSLB Cloud provides load balancing across multiple datacenters (active/active) and cloud applications based on GSLB Cloud Policies, with site selection according to application/server availability (health checks) and client geolocation.

Business Drivers

• Flexibility and reduce overall TCO
• Business continuity
• Always ON
• Increase performance

Key Customer Benefits

• Service continuity
• Improve user QoE
• Increase efficiency
• Horizontal scaling
• Multisite visibility
• LB decision according to geo-IP, load, latency, and application visibility

Features:

GSLB Benefits

• Advanced global server load balancing
• Rolls out in minutes (no migration/coding necessary)
• Easy to deploy
• Integration with Fortinet family products

DNS Services

• FQDN and zone services
• Advanced DNS policy
• Support DNS records:
  • A/AAAA (address record)
  • CNAME (canonical name record)
  • MX (mail exchange record)
  • NS (name server record)
  • PTR (pointer record)
  • SRV (service locator)
  • TXT (text record)
• Service selection:
  • Weight: DNS queries are load-balanced by weight.
  • DNS-Query-Origin: DNS queries are load-balanced to the pool with the same geographic information.
  • Global Availability: DNS queries are load-balanced to the first available pool.

Management

• License visibility
• Central view (grid and list)
• Monitoring and site overview
• DNS history statistics

Health Check

• Support for various application/protocol validations:
  • TCP port
  • TCP echo
  • ICMP
  • DNS
  • UDP
  • HTTP (GET/HEAD/Connect)
  • HTTPS (SSL validation, TLS 1.2, 1.3)
• Health check match for user/password, hostname, string validation, response code
• AND/OR relationship

Load Balancing

• GEO: FortiGSLB performs load balancing according to the request’s source geographic location.
• Least connection: FortiGSLB Cloud load balances traffic to the virtual server with the least connections.
• Connection limit: FortiGSLB Cloud performs load balancing according to the virtual server connection limit determined by the virtual server weight. The greater a virtual server weight, the more responses it gets.
• Bytes per second (BPS): FortiGSLB Cloud load balances traffic to the virtual server with the least BPS.
• Server performance: FortiGSLB Cloud load balances traffic to the server with the lowest load (memory and CPU). Virtual servers with better server performance in the CPU or memory (whichever one you give more weight to) respond.

Documentation:

Download the Fortinet FortiGSLB Datasheet (PDF).