• SonicOS 7.1 Rules and Policies
• Overview
  • About SonicOS
  • SonicOS Workflow
  • How to Use the SonicOS Administration Guides
  • Guide Conventions
• Settings
  • Configuring App/Match/Malware
  • Configuring Content Filtering Service (CFS)
    • SonicWall CFS
    • CFS Custom Category
  • Geo-IP
    • Custom List
      • Editing a Custom List Entry
      • Deleting Custom List Entries
    • Using Geo-IP Diagnostics
  • Botnet
    • Configuring Botnet Settings
    • Creating Custom Botnet Lists
    • Viewing Dynamic Botnets Lists
    • Configuring a Dynamic Botnet List Server
    • Using Botnet Diagnostics
  • Decryption (DPI-SSL)
    • Certificate
    • Common Name
    • SSL Servers
  • Decryption (DPI-SSH)
  • Signature Update
• Security Policy
  • User & Country
  • App/URL/Custom Match
• NAT Policy
  • About NAT in SonicOS
  • About NAT Load Balancing
    • Determining the NAT LB Method to Use
    • Caveats
    • How Load Balancing Algorithms are Applied
    • Sticky IP Algorithm Examples
      • Example One - Mapping to a Network
      • Example Two - Mapping to an IP Address Range
  • About NAT64
    • Use of Pref64::/n
  • About FQDN-based NAT
  • About Source MAC Address Override
  • Viewing NAT Policy Entries
    • Changing the Display
    • Filtering the Display
  • Adding or Editing NAT or NAT64 Rule Policies
  • Deleting NAT Policies
  • Creating NAT Rule Policies: Examples
    • Creating a One-to-One NAT Policy for Inbound Traffic
    • Creating a One-to-One NAT Policy for Outbound Traffic
    • Inbound Port Address Translation via One-to-One NAT Policy
    • Inbound Port Address Translation via WAN IP Address
    • Creating a Many-to-One NAT Policy
    • Creating a Many-to-Many NAT Policy
    • Creating a NAT Load Balancing Policy for Two Web Servers
• Routing
  • About Routing
    • About Metrics and Administrative Distance
      • About Metrics
      • About Administrative Distance
    • Route Advertisement
    • ECMP Routing
    • Policy-based Routing
    • Policy-based TOS Routing
    • PBR Metric-based Priority
    • Policy-based Routing and IPv6
    • OSPF and RIP Advanced Routing Services
      • About Routing Services
        • Protocol Type
        • Maximum Hops
        • Split-Horizon
        • Poison Reverse
        • Routing Table Updates
        • Subnet Sizes Supported
        • Autonomous System Topologies
      • OSPF Terms
    • Drop Tunnel Interface
    • App-based Routing
  • Rules and Policies >
    • Configuring
      • Adding Static Routes
      • Probe-Enabled Policy-based Routing Configuration
• Decryption Policy
  • Client-side SSL Rules
  • Server-side SSL Rules
  • SSH Rules
  • Setting up the Decryption Policy Table
    • Managing the Decryption Policy Toolbars
    • Changing the Policy Priority
    • Creating Decryption Policies
      • Adding Decryption Policies
      • Editing Decryption Policies
      • Deleting Decryption Policies
• DoS Policy
  • Setting up the DoS Policy Table
    • Managing the DoS Policy Toolbars
    • Changing the DoS Policy Priority
    • Creating DoS Policies
      • Adding DoS Policies
      • Editing DoS Policies
      • Deleting DoS Policies
• DNS Policy
  • Creating DNS Policies
    • Adding DNS Policies
    • Editing DNS Policies
    • Deleting DNS Policies
  • DNS Doctoring
• Endpoint Policy
• Shadow
• SonicWall Support
  • About This Document

About NAT Load Balancing

Network Address Translation (NAT) and Load Balancing (LB) provide the ability to balance incoming traffic across multiple, similar network resources. Do not confuse this with the Failover & Load Balancing feature in SonicOS. While both features can be used in conjunction, Failover & Load Balancing is used to actively monitor WAN connections and act accordingly on failure/recovery of the WAN interface(s), and NAT LB is primarily used to balance incoming traffic.

Load Balancing distributes traffic among similar network resources so that no single server becomes overwhelmed, allowing for reliability and redundancy. If one server becomes unavailable, traffic is routed to available resources, providing maximum up-time.

This details how to configure the necessary NAT, load balancing, health checks, logging, and firewall rules to allow systems from the public Internet to access a virtual IP that maps to one or more internal systems, such as web servers, FTP servers, or SonicWall SMA appliances. This virtual can be independent of the firewall or it can be shared, assuming the firewall itself is not using the port(s) in question.

The load balancing capability in SonicOS, while fairly basic, satisfies the requirements for many network deployments. Network administrators with environments needing more granular load balancing, persistence and health-check mechanisms are advised to use a dedicated third-party load-balancing appliance.

• Determining the NAT LB Method to Use
• Caveats
• How Load Balancing Algorithms are Applied
• Sticky IP Algorithm Examples