Monitoring the network is a crucial part of an admin's job as it can help prevent critical elements and devices from experiencing downtime. When client devices approach servers with multiple requests, the load should be evenly shared between servers to avoid any crashes. This is where a load balancer comes in.
Business networks typically have critical servers and applications, such as database servers and Exchange servers, which are hosted for high availability. Generally, a load balancer like Kemp LoadMaster, or an F5 load balancer is used in these networks to share the load between the servers to offer uninterrupted services. A load balancer uses real servers and virtual services to reroute requests properly.
Virtual services act as intermediaries between client requests and real servers. When a load balancer receives a request, it reroutes it to the appropriate virtual service, which then maps the request to the respective real server.
Real servers, also known as back-end servers or pool members, are the actual physical or virtual servers hosting the application or service. Load balancers distribute incoming traffic across multiple real servers to utilize resources efficiently.
As organizations experience an increasing demand for their services, load balancers become irreplaceable components of their network infrastructures due to the increasing scale. The consequences of server outages or interruptions in processing client requests can be catastrophic for businesses.
For instance, in an online retail environment, especially during peak periods such as holidays or sales events, any disruption in website availability or performance can have significant consequences, such as lost sales opportunities, damage to the brand's reputation, and customer frustration.
Therefore, reliable, effective load balancers are needed to manage traffic flow and maintain the availability of services.
OpManager's load balancer monitoring provides real-time insights into the health and performance of load balancers. OpManager now supports a variety of load balancers, including Layer 3 (L3) and Layer 7 (L7) load balancers.
OpManager provides comprehensive monitoring and management capabilities for load balancers, ensuring the optimal performance and availability of network resources. With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, intuitive visualization tools, and customizable alerting mechanisms, OpManager can provide the following:
OpManager ensures the continuous availability of load balancers, virtual services, and real servers by monitoring their operational statuses in real time. This real-time monitoring capability allows OpManager to promptly detect any issues or failures in these components, ensuring that the traffic distribution remains efficient and uninterrupted.
OpManager provides comprehensive performance monitoring by continuously tracking the key metrics of load balancers, virtual services, and real servers. OpManager's load balancer monitoring ensures high availability, optimal performance, and security by:
OpManager helps keep track of the connections in a load balancer—both total connections (which include all the sessions since the load balancer started) and active connections (which include sessions that are currently open and being processed). OpManager tracks these connections in real time, providing insights into the traffic distribution and server load.
OpManager tracks inbound and outbound traffic through load balancers, assisting administrators in server capacity planning and load balancing decision-making. OpManager monitors traffic patterns and volume in real time and provides valuable insights into network utilization, which empowers administrators to optimize resource allocation to meet changing traffic demands.
OpManager monitors key metrics, such as CPU usage, memory consumption, uptime, and transaction response times, and helps administrators identify potential issues and proactively address them before they impact network performance or availability.
Through the device snapshot page, OpManager offers detailed visualizations of load balancers, including the virtual services and the real servers in them, allowing administrators to drill down into connection, traffic, and availability metrics. With its intuitive dashboards, graphical representations, and color-coded metrics, OpManager provides a comprehensive overview of network performance and resource utilization.
OpManager's customizable alerting mechanisms notify administrators of critical events affecting load balancers, such as traffic spikes, performance drops, or system failures. By configuring threshold-based alerts, administrators can receive real-time notifications about performance degradation, hardware failures, or other issues impacting network availability and performance. With OpManager's Notification Profiles feature, users can create customized Notification Profiles defining who receives notifications, when they are sent, and through which channels.
OpManager's reports offer a streamlined, efficient way to access vital information about a load balancer's performance. These reports provide clear, precise summaries of critical metrics and data, allowing users to quickly assess the health and status of their network infrastructure. With these, users can easily identify any issues or anomalies, enabling prompt action to resolve them and ensure that the load balancer is operating smoothly. Whether the task at hand is monitoring system uptime, analyzing bandwidth usage, tracking device performance, or performing capacity planning, OpManager's reports deliver the essential insights IT administrators need to keep their networks running optimally.
OpManager helps network admins monitor more than just load balancers. It is a comprehensive network monitoring solution with a plethora of features and a wide range of add-ons, helping network admins manage and monitor their entire network with ease.Learn more about ManageEngine OpManager by downloading our free, 30-day trial or requesting a quote.
