Using cisco router as HTTP load balancer

Question

I know this question is quite unusual, router doesn't design to do load balancing, but Is it possible to use cisco router as a simple HTTP Load balancer ? by creating nat pool and using ip nat inside,outside commands. (We have some left-over routers)

Client<->router <-> 192.168.1.11,192.168.1.12,192.168.11.13:80

Because, F5 is qutie expensive and we use only a fraction of its functions (Just a simple round-robin without any connection persistent).

There are 4-5 thousands transaction per sec (1MB per transaction). Do you think the router can handle it? or using Linux with iptables or software load balancer would be better ?

Answer 1

You can get a load balancing module to fit into the 6500-series Catalyst chassis. Aside from that special case (and it's stretching it; that's a LB sharing a box with a router; the router isn't actually doing the balancing), there's no way to do load balancing with just a plain router as far as I'm aware.