LLB Forwarding Agent

The LLB's forwarding facility eliminates the need for a client to know the specific port a server uses. It is intended to limit the number of well-known port numbers reserved for specific purposes.

The forwarding agent listens on one well-known port for each address family. It forwards any messages received to the local server that exports the requested object. Forwarding is particularly useful when the requester of a service already knows the host on which the server is running. For example, you do not need to assign a well-known port to a server that reports load statistics, nor do you need to register the server with the GLB. Each such server registers only with its host's LLB. Remote clients access the server by specifying the object, the interface, and the host, but not a specific port, when making a Remote Procedure Call.