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> Chapter 16 - Load Balancing > Introduction

Introduction

FortiOS server load balancing includes the features you would expect of any server load balancing solution. Traffic can be distributed across multiple backend servers based on multiple methods including static (failover), round robin, weighted to account for different sized servers, or based on the health and performance of the server including round trip time, number of connections. The load balancer supports HTTP, HTTPS, IMAPS, POP3S, SMTPS, SSL or generic TCP/UDP or IP protocols. Session persistence is supported based on the SSL session ID or based on an injected HTTP cookie.

Before you begin

Before you begin to configure load balancing from the web-based manager you should go to System > Config > Features and turn on Load Balancing. To find Load Balancing select the Show More button.

How this chapter is organized

This document contains detailed information about how to configure firewall server load balancing to load balance various types of traffic to multiple backend servers. This document describes all server load balancing configuration options and contains detailed configuration examples.

This FortiOS Handbook chapter contains the following sections:

Configuring load balancing describes FortiOS server load balancing.

Load balancing configuration examples describes some basic and advanced load balancing configurations.