Session-Aware Load Balancing Clustering (SLBC)

Session-Aware Load Balancing Clusters consist of one or more FortiControllers acting as load balancers and two or more FortiGate-5000s and operating as workers all installed in one or two FortiGate-5000 series chassis.

SLBC clusters load balance TCP and UDP sessions. As a session-aware load balancer, the FortiController includes FortiASIC DP processors that maintain state information for all TCP and UDP sessions. The FortiASIC DP processors are capable of directing any TCP or UDP session to any worker installed in the same chassis. This session-awareness means that all TCP and UDP traffic being processed by a specific worker continues to be processed by the same worker. Session-awareness also means that more complex networking features such as network address translation (NAT), fragmented packets, complex UDP protocols, and complex protocols such as SIP that use pinholes, can be load balanced by the cluster.

For more information about SLBC see the FortiController Session-Aware Load Balancing Guide.

You cannot mix FGCP and SLBC clusters in the same FortiGate-5000 chassis.