Performance Routing (PfR) with single router, dual ISP and load balancing

[ciscobigcat]

It looks like PfR can do this but I have only found information about this feature which will start using ISP2 once ISP1 reaches 75% usage. But this is not load balancing.

Can we accomplish load balancing utilizing a single router with dual ISPs using this PfR feature? 

Or do we have to use another feature?

thank you in advance

[Emmanuel Valdez]

Hi ciscobigcat,

You can use pfr to use 2 ISP at the same time but it doesn´t apply a load balancing feature, there are other appliance making that feature for example Cisco SA500 but it is a SMB appliance. 

What´s your router model? maybe you can use PBR, you can connect the first ISP to your Cisco router and the second ISP to another router (maybe the default that ISP gave you), then use PBR to send the internet traffic for vlan x through Cisco router and vlan y through the second router.

If you need anything else please let me know.

Regards.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Disclaimer

The Author of this posting offers the information contained within this posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose. Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.

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Posting

I'm rusty using OER/PfR, but I recall it could load balance two links on same router.  The issue, I also recall, if doing BGP, OER/PfR has to detect a load imbalance, and there's a certain difference allowance, and OER/PfR takes some time to decide, so depending on actual traffic, it might not be obvious it's working.  If doing BGP, there's a hidden command (which I don't recall is) that will load balance the two links on the same router; then you use OER/PfR to dynamically refine the balance load.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Disclaimer

The Author of this posting offers the information contained within this posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose. Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.

Liability Disclaimer

In no event shall Author be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profit) arising out of the use or inability to use the posting's information even if Author has been advised of the possibility of such damage.

Posting

BTW, forgot to mention, in a setup like yours, you could also drop using BGP and use a pair of static default routes.  Remember BGP directs to "best path", which is usually least number of AS hops, but PfR directs to "best performing path".