Coyote Point E650GX Balances Virtual Machine Loads

by Frank Ohlhorst

The E650GX has an AJAX-based Web user interface. Configuration options such as clusters, servers and match rules are displayed as a tree on the left side of the page, while detailed configuration and statistical information is displayed on the right.

Version 8.6 of Coyote Point’s EQ/OS operating system provides full support for 802.1Q-tagged VLANs as well as untagged VLANs. A single E650GX can be used to load balance virtual clusters and servers on different VLANs, important for data security and network administration.

EQ/OS 8.6 on the E650GX includes VLB Advanced, a powerful interface with VMware’s vSphere data center virtualization infrastructure. This new feature optimizes application delivery for virtualized servers as well as standard “physical” servers. VLB Advanced incorporates virtual server performance monitoring and is able to find virtual server instances within the data center.

The Smart Events feature is a visual scripting language used to fire off actions within the E650 as well as within VMware. One interesting example is the ipmi_poweroff function included in Smart Events. When an administrator-specified set of events occurs, VLB Advanced can be programmed to switch a server’s power supply on or off, meaning you can keep a set of servers powered off in reserve for traffic spikes, automatically power them on and then power them back down when the load subsides.

More visual performance history is shown here.

Included on the E650GX is the Envoy GSLB (geographic server load balancing) package. This is an extra cost option on Coyote Point’s other models. Envoy uses the DNS (Domain Name System) protocol to intelligently balance users across multiple data centers or WAN links. It is commonly used to automate disaster recovery.

The E650GX provides 22 managed Gigabit Ethernet ports (2 SFP for fiber). Each port can be assigned to one or more VLANs and can be connected to servers, firewalls, switches or other network devices.

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