3/18/2019 What is a Dispatch Method? What types of dispatch methods are available?

What is a Dispatch Method? What

types of dispatch methods are

available?
AppDirector

Best Practice
Last Updated 09/16/2018

Created Date 06/18/2012

Article Id BP2136

Con guration
Dispatch Methods are the load balancing algorithms that determine how client requests are distributed between
servers in a farm.

A Di t i t f i f li t dd id t hi h t di t h t D i
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3/18/2019 What is a Dispatch Method? What types of dispatch methods are available?
AppDirector receives requests for service from clients and decides to which server to direct each request. During
this process, AppDirector finds the best server to provide the requested service. The criterion according to which
AppDirector selects the best server is defined by the Dispatch Method.

You can define the Dispatch Method during the process of AppDirector Farm configuration, according to the farm
characteristics and users’ needs. This may differ between applications, depending on the service that the particular
farm provides. For example, the number of users is a significant factor for a Web farm, while the amount of traffic
can be more important for an FTP farm.

The following Dispatch Methods are available:

Cyclic
Weighted Cyclic
Fewest Number of Users
Fewest Number of Users - Local
Least Amount of Traffic
Least Amount of Traffic - Local
Response Time
Hashing
NT-1 and NT-2
Private-1 and Private-2

Cyclic

When the Cyclic Dispatch Method is defined, AppDirector forwards the traffic dynamically to each sever in a round-
robin fashion.

Weighted Cyclic

The Weighted Cyclic Dispatch Method is based on the Cyclic Dispatch Method with considerations of the servers’
weight. The weight of a server in a farm is the server’s priority, or the server’s importance. You can define that a
particular server in a farm has more weight than other servers. This means that more requests for service are
forwarded to this server than to servers with a lower weight.

When the Weighted Cyclic Dispatch Method is selected, AppDirector distributes clients’ requests for service in the
round-robin manner, taking into consideration the weight of servers in that farm.

Explicitly, every new session is distributed to the next server up to the server weight.

For example, if one server has a weight of 2 and another server has weight of 5, the first two sessions are sent to
#1, the next five are sent to #2, sessions eight and nine are sent to #1 again, and ten to fourteen are sent to #1 and
so on.

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For more information about servers’ weight, refer to the software version user manual.

Fewest Number of Users

With the Fewest Number of Users Dispatch Method, when a new request for service is sent to an AppDirector
Virtual IP address, it is directed to the server with the least number of sessions at that given time. Server weight is
also considered.

Note:

The number of sessions is defined by the number of active Client Table entries that contain information about the
sessions in which this server participates.

Fewest Number of Users - Local

The Fewest Number of Users - Local Dispatch Method can be used when the same servers participate in multiple
farms. When this method is selected, AppDirector looks for the server with the fewest number of users only within
the farm that is currently addressed by the client. Traffic of other farms is not considered.

For example, Server 1 and Server 2 can provide service A and service B. These servers are used as part of Farm A
to provide service A and as part of Farm B to provide service B. When the client’s request for service A is sent to
Farm A, which uses this Dispatch Method, AppDirector looks for a server with the fewest number of requests for
service A. The requests for service B that exist on the same servers are not considered by AppDirector. Server
weight is also considered.

Least Amount of Traffic

With the Least Amount of Traffic Dispatch Method, a new request for service is directed to the server with the least
amount of traffic at that given time. Server weight is also considered.

Note:
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3/18/2019 What is a Dispatch Method? What types of dispatch methods are available?

The amount of traffic is defined as packets per second (pps) from AppDirector to the server and from the server to
AppDirector (back to the client), as is recorded in AppDirector’s Client Table for all traffic forwarded to that server.

Least Amount of Traffic – Local

The Least Amount of Traffic - Local Dispatch Method can be used when the same servers participate in multiple
farms. When this method is selected, AppDirector looks for the server with the least amount of traffic only within the
farm that is currently addressed by the client. Traffic of other farms is not considered. Server weight is also
considered.

For example, Server 1 and Server 2 provide service A and service B. These servers are used as part of Farm A to
provide service A and as part of Farm B to provide service B. When the client's request for service A is sent to Farm
A, which uses this Dispatch Method, AppDirector considers only the traffic that is related to service A. The traffic that
is related to service B on the same servers is not considered by AppDirector. AppDirector looks for a server with the
least amount of traffic related to service A, and forwards the client's request to this server.

Response Time

The Response Time Dispatch Method allows AppDirector to select the fastest server in the farm. When this method
is used, the load balancing process is based on choosing the least loaded server as calculated by the Response
Level measured by the Health Monitoring module.

The Health Monitoring module enables users to track the round trip time of Health Checks. The device keeps a
Response Level indicator for each check. The Response Level is the average ratio between the actual response
time and the configured Timeout.

This average is calculated over a number of samples as defined in the Response Level Samples parameter. A value
of 0 in the Response Level Samples parameter disables the parameter; any other value between 1-9 defines the
number of samples.

The Response Level Samples parameter can be used in the Health Checks in which the Measure Response Time
parameter is enabled Server weight is also considered
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3/18/2019 What is a Dispatch Method? What types of dispatch methods are available?
parameter is enabled. Server weight is also considered.

Response Time Dispatch Method Configuration Guidelines:

1. Enable the Health Monitoring module for this farm, and set the Response Level Samples parameter and
the Measure Response Time parameter for each Health Check.
2. Set the Dispatch Method in the farm to Response Time.

Hashing

When the Hashing Dispatch Method is applied, AppDirector selects a server for a session using a static Hash
function. This method enables AppDirector to repeatedly direct requests from the same client to the same server
within a farm even after the client entry has aged, as long as the server is still in service. This Dispatch Method also
provides support for reverse proxy Web farms, avoiding data replication among the proxy servers.

A static Hash function enables AppDirector to choose the server for a session on the basis of the session’s
information. The input for the Hash function is usually the Client IP only. A formula is applied to this IP address. The
output that is received is a numeric value.

Note:

When a Hash result indicates to use a server with the status of Not in Service, a second Hash is used to select an
available server for the session.

The use of Hashing provides the following:

Persistency on the basis of the client IP address. For each request from the same client, AppDirector
applies the same formula and receives the same output number. This ensures that the same server
within the farm is selected for all requests from the same client IP.
Server weight is taken into account as follows: when the Hash Dispatch Method is used, server weight is
limited up to a weight of 10.

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The use of Hashing in conjuction with Specific Backup Server is supported.
When a Layer 7 policy with the URL method is used, Hashing ensures that all requests for the same host
name are sent to the same server. For Reverse Proxy support, this is done by using Hashing of the URL
requested by the client.

NT-1 and NT-2

When the NT-1 or the NT-2 Dispatch Method is selected, AppDirector queries the farm servers for Windows NT
SNMP statistics. AppDirector forwards the farm’s clients to the least busy server according to the servers’ reported
statistics.

You can select from a list of statistics. The parameters are considered according to the weights that you define in
the first Windows NT weights scheme for the NT-1, and the second Windows NT weights scheme for the NT-2.

Note:

When using these Dispatch Methods, you need to configure the Windows NT scheme. In the scheme, you can set
the weight of the statistics parameters.

Private-1 and Private-2

When the Private-1 or the Private-2 Dispatch Method is selected, AppDirector queries the farm’s servers for private
SNMP parameters according to a predefined private weights scheme. The ratio of sessions on the servers is
balanced according to the statistics.

You need to define which MIB variables are queried and set the private weights scheme. The parameters are
considered according to the weights that you define in the first private weights scheme for the Private-1, and in the
second private weights scheme for the Private-2.

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Note:

When using these Dispatch Methods, you need to configure the Private Scheme. In the scheme, you can set the
weight of the statistics parameters.

For more information, please refer to the Product Manual.

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