IPVS (IP Virtual Server) implements transport-layer
load balancing, usually called
Layer 4
In computer networking, the transport layer is a conceptual division of methods in the layered architecture of protocols in the network stack in the Internet protocol suite and the OSI model. The protocols of this layer provide end-to-end c ...
LAN switching, as part of the
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...
. It's configured via the user-space utility tool.
IPVS is incorporated into the
Linux Virtual Server (LVS), where it runs on a host and acts as a load balancer in front of a cluster of real servers. IPVS can direct requests for TCP- and UDP-based services to the real servers, and make services of the real servers appear as virtual services on a single
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
. IPVS is built on top of the
Netfilter
Netfilter is a framework provided by the Linux kernel that allows various networking-related operations to be implemented in the form of customized handlers. Netfilter offers various functions and operations for packet filtering, network addre ...
.
IPVS is merged into versions 2.4.x and newer of the Linux kernel mainline.
See also
*
Netfilter
Netfilter is a framework provided by the Linux kernel that allows various networking-related operations to be implemented in the form of customized handlers. Netfilter offers various functions and operations for packet filtering, network addre ...
and
nftables
*
Network scheduler
A network scheduler, also called packet scheduler, queueing discipline (qdisc) or queueing algorithm, is an arbiter on a node in a packet switching communication network. It manages the sequence of network packets in the transmit and receive q ...
References
External links
Source archiveVirtual Server Configuration Wiki
{{Linux kernel
Internet Protocol based network software
Parallel computing
High-availability cluster computing
Servers (computing)
Routing