Patent ID: 8639813

Claim:
A method for global server load balancing a plurality of sites based on a number of Secure Socket Layer Virtual Private Network (SSL VPN) users accessing servers at each of the plurality of sites, the method comprising: a) receiving, by a global server load balancing (GSLB) virtual server of a first appliance, a request to access a server, the GSLB virtual server load balancing a plurality of sites, each of the plurality of sites comprising a load balancing virtual server load balancing users access to servers, a plurality of the users accessing servers via an SSL VPN session, one or more of the plurality of the users having a plurality of sessions with one or more servers; b) receiving, by the GSLB virtual server from a first load balancing virtual server of a second appliance at a first site, a first number of current SSL VPN users of a first plurality of SSL VPN and non-SSL VPN users of the second appliance, the first number of current SSL VPN users identified and maintained by the second appliance and accessing servers from the first site via SSL VPN sessions, a first load balancing virtual server of the second appliance determining a first count of the first number of current SSL VPN users distinguished from those users of the second appliance that are not accessing servers via SSL VPN; c) receiving, by the GSLB virtual server from a second load balancing virtual server of a third appliance at a second site, a second number of current SSL VPN users of a second plurality of SSL VPN and non-SSL VPN users of the third appliance, the second number of current SSL VPN users identified and maintained by the third appliance and accessing servers from the second site via SSL VPN sessions, a second load balancing virtual server of the third appliance determining a second count of the second number of current SSL VPN users distinguished from those users of the third appliance that are not accessing servers via SSL VPN; and d) determining, by the GSLB virtual server, to forward the request to one of the first load balancing virtual server of the first site or the second load balancing virtual server of the second site by load balancing a number of SSL VPN users across the plurality of sites based on the first number of current SSL VPN users and the second number of current SSL VPN users.