Inbound Load Balance with 2 Interfaces?

[rneily]

I've been playing around with load balancig lately, and it's been going well.  What I would like to know is if there is a way to use pfSense on a 3 Interface WRAP box so that I dont need an extra ethernet switch behind the pfSense BOX.  I would like to connect the servers that I want to balance directly to the WRAP without using a switch.  (I will never need more than 2 servers, if I do, I'll have to use the switch)

Ie.  I have this as a current setup..

WAN – Interface0->  PFSense Wrap Box -- Interface0--> Ethernet Switch -> Server 1
                                                                                                        --> Server 2

I would like to set up pfsense as strictly a load balancer, and get rid of the Extra Ethernet switch like this:

WAN --Interface0-->  PFSense Wrap Box -- Interface1---> Server 1
                                                          -- Interface2--->  Server 2

Is this possible?  Would I just bridge Interface1 and Interface2?  Any reason NOT to do this????

[billm]

@rneily:

I've been playing around with load balancig lately, and it's been going well.  What I would like to know is if there is a way to use pfSense on a 3 Interface WRAP box so that I dont need an extra ethernet switch behind the pfSense BOX.  I would like to connect the servers that I want to balance directly to the WRAP without using a switch.  (I will never need more than 2 servers, if I do, I'll have to use the switch)

Ie.  I have this as a current setup..

WAN – Interface0->  PFSense Wrap Box -- Interface0--> Ethernet Switch -> Server 1
                                                                                                        --> Server 2

I would like to set up pfsense as strictly a load balancer, and get rid of the Extra Ethernet switch like this:

WAN --Interface0-->  PFSense Wrap Box -- Interface1---> Server 1
                                                          -- Interface2--->  Server 2

Is this possible?  Would I just bridge Interface1 and Interface2?  Any reason NOT to do this????

I'd put the servers in different subnets if you're going to cross them over to the firewall.  The load balancer doesn't require that servers reside on the same subnet.  What you want to do is perfectly doable (just don't put too much thought into it…it's really as simple as it sounds).

--Bill