3G failover

[xoff]

Hi,

I am new to Zentyal server, but so far loving every bit of it.    There is just one thing I am not sure about,  after reading the docs,  searching forums, blog posts etc.  Maybe this has been answered somewhere, but I would appreciate if someone could shed some light.

I have configured Zentyal 3.2 as Gateway,  to load balance between 2 ADSL connections.   
In addition,  I have a 3rd gateway using a 3G/HSPA USB stick.  I want the latter to act as a backup/failover gateway ONLY when both the ADSL lines go down.

I don't want the 3G/HSPA connection to be load balanced,  it should only be used in case both the ADSL lines go down (3G bandwidth a lot more expensive).

Can anyone advice how to go about configuring this?   I was thinking about using the max weight for the 2 ADSL connections (15) - but given the amount of bandwidth is used,  a 1/15th usage on 3G is still too expensive not ideal for us. 

Thank you 

[jbahillo]

Hi there:

I don't think zentyal can handle this in this kind of situations. Instead you can find even SOHO  lowcost DSL routers that can do this for you

[zachso]

I have a shellscript in cron (every five minutes) for this, it pings a few servers and if none works, it assumes network connection is down. it then starts the ppp connection script for the 3G connection and does some stuff like opening a reverse ssh connection to another server. I'm only using this as backup remote control, but you should get a similar thing to work for you.

[BrettonWoods]

Would be great if you could have a weight of zero, that would only use if all failed.

[hayedid]

Since zentyal can't do it (based upon the above), if you can't find any other solution, you might consider a PepLink router.  It will do that load balancing setup.  We have one at work and it has been fabulous!

[christian]

Don't you guys mix up two different concepts that are:
- switching (swinging) to fail-over gateway in case main gateway is done
- automatically switch on 3G connection in case such access is required

fail-over gateway mechanism exists with Zentyal. I'm using it on 2.2 and it almost works. What doesn't work very well is the roll-back to main gateway when link is back. I've quite often to do it manually. This aside, switch to fail-over is most of the time transparent.

dealing with 3G is another aspect... but if you can set-up modem handling 3G, I believe this can be used as fail-over gateway in Zentyal environment isn't it? although the 3G stuff will be managed at modem level.

[BrettonWoods]

Christian, just a question.

Again its all about perception and mine is so.

Can you have a wan unchecked in the load balancing but included in the failover.

That way it will only ever be used when all other wans fail?

Does that work as its doesn't matter about 3g being connected but the cost of pulling data means that its an only use if all else has failed.

[christian]

I'm not using load balancing but.... as I'm using 2.2, my answer my be out of any interest for you (kind of joke referring your post related to forum partitioning) 

[BrettonWoods]

Proof that we need the forum partitioning by version or confusion will reign

Thats the problem as an answer for 2.2 for someone using 3.2 is about as usefull as a chocolate kettle.

Try unchecking the 3g in load balancing but have it set up as a wan with the other two adsl running the failover checks.

See how it works. I have fibre and adsl with a weight of 5:1 with dns checks to 8.8.8.8 it works great but with a 3g I can see the need to only operate when all else fails due to cost.

Post back your findings as I am interested.

Thanks

Bretton

[christian]

Sorry, I can't help further, running only 2.2 
Perhaps some 3.2 user will have implemented this already.