Patent ID: 8009682

Claim:
A method for directing by a flow distributor network packets to a packet engine of a plurality of packet engines while maintaining a client internet protocol address and a client port, each of the plurality of packet engines executing on a core of a plurality of cores in a multi-core system intermediary to the client and a server, the method comprising: a) receiving, from a flow distributor by a packet engine on a first core of the multi-core system intermediary to a client and a server, a client request identifying a first tuple comprising a client internet protocol address, a client port, a server internet protocol address and a server port, the first core selected by the flow distributor to receive the client request based on a hash of the first tuple; b) receiving, by the flow distributor, a response to the client request forwarded to the server by the packet engine, the response generated by the server and comprising a second tuple identifying, via a hash of the second tuple, a second core different than the first core of the packet engine receiving the request; c) forwarding, by the flow distributor, the received response to a second packet engine of the second core; and d) directing, responsive to a rule of the flow distributor executing on the second core, the response received by the second core to the first core.