Use encapsulation forwarding to forward traffic across network segments
Use encapsulation forwarding when the back-end server is not located on the same network segment or if you are using virtualization technology and need to forward packets that are otherwise unable to be forwarded.
Before you begin
About this task
In a typical configuration, Load Balancer receives a packet, P, and forwards it as packet P', where only the time-to-live (TTL) has been decremented. When you enable encapsulation, Load Balancer receives a packet P, and forwards it as E(P'), where the encapsulated packet E contains P'. The outer packet E has a unique IP header, which permits Load Balancer to forward packets across routers and across some types of virtualization technology that you could not otherwise forward packets across.
- Is implemented like MAC forwarding:
- Packets from server to client do not go through the load balancer
- Alias the loopback device to cluster address on back-end server
- Requires that you configure an IPIP or GRE tunnel only on the back-end server.
- Does not require you to add routes while configuring the tunnel.
Additionally, this functionality allows you to forward packets to Solaris zones or AIX® workload partitions that are on the same host, since Load Balancer can use the existing stack configuration instead of bypassing it entirely.