Patent ID: 9235448
Filing Date: 2016-01-12
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A method for configuring one or more global server load balancing (GSLB) appliances and one or more load balancing appliances via a single configuration to represent a GSLB site hierarchy, the method comprising: a) receiving, by each of a plurality of appliances, a single configuration representing a GSLB site hierarchy, comprising a plurality of levels, the GSLB site hierarchy comprising a plurality of sites, each site of the plurality of sites having one or more appliances of the plurality of appliances, each of the appliances deployed at a level of the plurality of levels; b) identifying, by a first appliance of the plurality of appliances, from the single configuration during configuration of the first appliance that the first appliance is a first node corresponding to a first GSLB site in the GSLB site hierarchy, the first appliance providing GSLB to the plurality of sites in the GSLB site hierarchy; c) identifying, by a second appliance of the plurality of appliances, from the single configuration during configuration of the second appliance that the second appliance is a second node corresponding to a second site in the GSLB site hierarchy, the second appliance providing load balancing for a plurality of servers at the second site in the GSLB site hierarchy; d) identifying, by the second appliance, from the single configuration during configuration of the second appliance that the first node of the first GSLB site is a parent node at a first level of the plurality of levels in the GSLB site hierarchy to the second node of the second appliance at the second site at a second level of the plurality of levels; e) establishing, by each of the plurality of appliances, a metric exchange connection with at least one appliance at a different level of the plurality of levels of the GSLB site hierarchy based on the topology of the GSLB site hierarchy to exchange load balancing statistics via transport layer connections; and f) exchanging, by each of the plurality of appliances, load balancing statistics with the at least one appliance at the different level of the plurality of levels of the GSLB site hierarchy based on the topology of the GSLB site hierarchy.