Two uplinks with load balancing; how can I allow a client to choose to always use WAN 1?

Bri_Bri
Here to help

Two uplinks with load balancing; how can I allow a client to choose to always use WAN 1?

I'm helping to set up a network using an MX84 and an MR53E. We have two internet connections -- WAN1 and WAN2 -- and I'd like to set up the network to use load balancing. Further I'd like there to be one subnet so that all clients are able to communicate with each other over the local network. However WAN1 has a static IP address, and sometimes clients need to use it specifically to connect to sites that have the static IP whitelisted.

 

So what I need is either a) a way of setting things up so that all traffic for specific websites is routed through WAN1, or b) a way for a client to be able to manually opt in to using only WAN1 when connecting to these sites and then be able to opt out of that once they're done so that their traffic is load balanced again.

 

The first thing I tried was creating a second Wi-Fi SSID with the MR53E and then setting it up so that all traffic on it goes to WAN2. However, I wasn't able to figure out how to do that without having both SSIDs using a different VLAN which prevents clients on different VLANs from being able to communicate with each other locally.

 

I also tried adding a "Flow preferences" in the "SD-WAN & traffic shaping" section of the MX84's configuration so that traffic of any protocol, coming from any IP address, and with a destination IP address of particular website would go through WAN1. However I have not been able to get it to work -- traffic will continue to sometimes go through WAN2.

 

Is there any way for me to accomplish what I'm after? I'll mention that I'm relatively new to networking situations like this so there may be something basic I'm not understanding.

 

 

4 REPLIES 4
AjitKumar
Head in the Cloud

Hi,

I think the "Flow Preference" should do the job.

 

Hope you have disabled "Load Balancing" feature under SD-WAN & traffic shaping.

 

Screenshot attached for reference.

 

Load Balancing.PNG

I am out of office so cannot try this configuration. Hence I am not very sure about the above suggestion.

However could you please cross check your configuration and Test.

 

 

Regards,
Ajit
AjitsNW@gmail.com
www.ajit.network

Is there a particular reason I should disable "Load balancing"? I'd prefer to keep it on if possible.
AjitKumar
Head in the Cloud

Hi,

No specific reason. Just to test the configuration.

 

"All Internet traffic will use the primary uplink unless overridden by an uplink preference or if the primary uplink fails."

There is a slight ambiguity in the above statement. (Seems like this works only when load balancing is disabled)

 

However I believe Flow Preference will work even when "Load Balancing" is enabled.

Regards,
Ajit
AjitsNW@gmail.com
www.ajit.network
jdsilva
Kind of a big deal


@AjitKumar wrote:

 

However I believe Flow Preference will work even when "Load Balancing" is enabled.


This is a true statement. Traffic is first compared against the flow preferences for handling. If none is found then the global default is used. 

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