Patent ID: 8782755

Claim:
A method for dynamically selecting by a traffic management virtual server an authentication virtual server from a plurality of authentication virtual servers, the method comprising the steps of: a) determining, by a traffic management virtual server of an appliance, from a request received from a client to access content of a server that the client has not been authenticated; b) identifying, by the traffic management virtual server, a policy for selecting an authentication virtual server from a plurality of authentication virtual servers executing on the same appliance to provide authentication of the client; c) selecting, by the traffic management virtual server, via the policy an authentication virtual server of the plurality of authentication virtual servers executing on the same appliance to authenticate the client; d) transmitting, by the traffic management virtual server, to the client a response to the request, the response comprising an instruction to redirect to the selected authentication virtual server; e) receiving, by the traffic management virtual server, a second request from the client, the second request comprising a session cookie identifying an authentication session of the authentication virtual server; and f) determining, from the identified authentication session, one or more traffic management policies to apply to the second request.