A Highly Available Transparent Linux Cluster Security Model

The use of firewall load balancing (FWLB) in tandem with transparent firewalls is problematic as the benefits of using stealth firewalls are nullified due to the use of IP addressing on load balancers. This paper describes the design & implementation of a new transparent cluster security model that addresses this problem. A transparent stateful CSG architecture, which uses a distributed sender-initiated Layer 2 per-packet firewall load balancing scheme, is devised for the protection of switched Linux clusters of computers. This security architecture presents several advantages like transparency, robust security, high availability, scalability & reliability, tamper resistance, anti-spoofing and anti-sniffing.