Ensure reliable and continuous operation with load balancing.
Load balancing keeps your systems running even if one of your components fails. It provides redundancy for the different components, so if a problem occurs, it has a minimal effect on your system.
Built-in load balancing
If you deploy a cluster of three nodes and set the Cortex XSOAR IP address access to either a virtual IP or the reverse proxy/ingress controller IP, the system implements built-in load balancing. This enables traffic distribution across the nodes and continuous operation in case one node fails.
External load balancing
you can also use an external load balancer to integrate with your organization's existing network architecture or to leverage advanced traffic management and security features.
For specific load balancer configuration steps, see the documentation for your external load balancer, for example F5 BIG-IP.
Important
When using an external load balancer, you need to configure sticky sessions (also known as session persistence) to ensure your session remains on a single server node throughout the session. This maintains application stability and proper functionality, and avoids operational issues including Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication failures where user requests may be inconsistently routed to different nodes within the cluster.
Recommended sticky session methods
There are two common ways to implement sticky sessions: cookie-based persistence and source IP persistence. The best choice depends on your specific network environment.
Cookie-based persistence
With cookie-based persistence, the load balancer inserts a unique cookie into a user's HTTP session. The load balancer then uses this cookie to ensure all subsequent requests from that user are consistently routed to the same server node.
This method is precise and reliable. It correctly identifies and maintains individual user sessions, even if multiple users are connecting from behind a single corporate firewall or proxy that makes them appear to have the same IP address.
Source IP persistence
With source IP persistence, the load balancer uses your source IP address to maintain session persistence, routing all requests from a single IP to the same server.
This method is typically the simplest to configure. However, you need to ensure that your users do not connect from behind a shared firewall or proxy (NAT). If multiple users share a source IP address, the load balancer will treat them as a single client and send them all to the same server, which can overload that server and defeat the purpose of load balancing.