Content Based Routing (CBR)

The CBR component makes load balancing based on the content of the request. Load Balancer supports content-based routing in two ways: the CBR component and the Dispatcher component's cbr forwarding method.

In conjunction with Caching Proxy, the CBR component has the ability to proxy HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) requests to specific servers based on the content requested. The Dispatcher component also provides content-based routing, but it does not require the Caching Proxy to be installed. Because the Dispatcher component's content-based routing is performed in the kernel as packets are received, it can provide faster content-based routing than the CBR component.

When do you use which CBR method? For fully secure SSL traffic (client through server): The CBR component (in conjunction with Caching Proxy) can process SSL encryption/decryption in order to perform content-based routing. The Dispatcher's cbr forwarding can only be configured with SSL ID affinity because it cannot process the encryption/decryption to perform true content-based routing on the client request's URL.

Refer to 4.5.5, SSL session ID for configuration details. For HTTP traffic: The Dispatcher's cbr forwarding method provides a faster response to client requests than the CBR component. Also, Dispatcher's cbr forwarding does not require the installation and use of Caching Proxy.

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