Load-Balance Not Working

Greetings!
It appears that load-balancing does not seem to be working on my ER7206.
SFP WAN: Starlink
WAN: T-Mobile
No matter what I do, all traffic is going out WAN interface. There is no traffic on the SFP WAN interface. Load balancing is currently setup for 1:1 as a test. I have tried with and without Link Backup enabled, but the results are the same.
I tested one client using Policy Routing to force traffic out the SFP WAN interface and it works fine, but once the policy route rule is removed, the client defaults back to WAN.
Online detection is currently set to 1 minute. I do have a Bandwith Control rule in place to limit a VLAN to a total amount of throughput, but it is setup to use both SFP WAN and WAN.
It appears that Online Detection may not be working on SFP WAN. When looking at the SFP WAN details on the Gateway, Online Detection reports 'Offline', even though the link is up and working. Again, forcing SFP WAN through Policy Routing works.
Any ideas are appreciated!
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0% utilization on SFP WAN for days on end with hundreds of guests rotating in and out of the network. I understand that true 1:1 isn't expected, but this is basically 0:1.
I have fixed the issue by moving the ISP from SFP WAN to WAN/LAN1 and assigning the load balance to 0:1:1.
I immediately got good balancing between both WAN providers.
There must be a bug in the firmware for this gateway when using the SFP port, since moving to WAN/LAN1 was the only change and both ISPs have roughly equal traffic flow now.
Thanks
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This question is answered in this KB:
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Thank you for the response, Clive. I have already read through that KB and it unfortunately doesn't provide a solution to my issue.
I have also tried it with 'Link Backup' disabled and a 1:1 load balance. Both SFP WAN and WAN are marked as 'Connected/Online'. The gateway should be sending at least some traffic out the SFP WAN interface (there are over 100 people on the LAN). However, SFP WAN still shows 0% utilization for upload and download, while WAN shows 20+% usage. The only way I can get traffic to go through SFP WAN is with a manual policy route rule.
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nsa_xploit wrote
Thank you for the response, Clive. I have already read through that KB and it unfortunately doesn't provide a solution to my issue.
I have also tried it with 'Link Backup' disabled and a 1:1 load balance. Both SFP WAN and WAN are marked as 'Connected/Online'. The gateway should be sending at least some traffic out the SFP WAN interface (there are over 100 people on the LAN). However, SFP WAN still shows 0% utilization for upload and download, while WAN shows 20+% usage. The only way I can get traffic to go through SFP WAN is with a manual policy route rule.
Link backup would disable the backup WAN. It isn't working until your primary WAN is down. If you expect load balance, then disable the link backup. Then the load balance and the ratio start to work. That's explained in the KB.
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Thanks for clarifying, Clive. I do have Link Backup disabled though (see screenshots below and on my last post). Link Backup is unchecked, and the load-balance ratio is set to 1:1. Traffic will still only go out the WAN interface. SFP WAN still has 0% usage. The only way I can get traffic to go out the SFP WAN interface (even with Link backup disabled) is by using a policy route to force a specific network to use it. Both interfaces show as Online.
Thank you
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nsa_xploit wrote
Thanks for clarifying, Clive. I do have Link Backup disabled though (see screenshots below and on my last post). Link Backup is unchecked, and the load-balance ratio is set to 1:1. Traffic will still only go out the WAN interface. SFP WAN still has 0% usage. The only way I can get traffic to go out the SFP WAN interface (even with Link backup disabled) is by using a policy route to force a specific network to use it. Both interfaces show as Online.
Thank you
Load balance does not guarantee the traffic will be 1:1. As you see, the Application-optimized routing. The session doesn't have to be balanced as your IP will change all the time and eventually get your account banned or at risk as your server thinks your IP is changing so fast.
So load balance will optimize the session and keep it in one of the WANs. Unless there is a new session and it will be balanced to another WAN.
This has been explained in the guide as well.
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0% utilization on SFP WAN for days on end with hundreds of guests rotating in and out of the network. I understand that true 1:1 isn't expected, but this is basically 0:1.
I have fixed the issue by moving the ISP from SFP WAN to WAN/LAN1 and assigning the load balance to 0:1:1.
I immediately got good balancing between both WAN providers.
There must be a bug in the firmware for this gateway when using the SFP port, since moving to WAN/LAN1 was the only change and both ISPs have roughly equal traffic flow now.
Thanks
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nsa_xploit wrote
0% utilization on SFP WAN for days on end with hundreds of guests rotating in and out of the network. I understand that true 1:1 isn't expected, but this is basically 0:1.
I have fixed the issue by moving the ISP from SFP WAN to WAN/LAN1 and assigning the load balance to 0:1:1.
I immediately got good balancing between both WAN providers.
There must be a bug in the firmware for this gateway when using the SFP port, since moving to WAN/LAN1 was the only change and both ISPs have roughly equal traffic flow now.
Thanks
That does not conclude that there is a bug in the system.
Turn off the application-optimized routing.
Disable any routing-related function or entries if you have. Try that again.
It's been 5 years old for ER7206 V1, and you are the first person reporting this issue. The load balance algorithm is the same for all other models. I have not seen this behavior in the past.
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I believe it was a Cisco copper SFP I was using, pretty sure that was my culprit. I had zero traffic flow over that WAN port when using load balance, unless manually forcing it out via a policy route.
Moving that interface from the SFP over to a copper WAN/LAN port solved it for me. Went from 0%/20% load on both WANs to 10%/10%, give or take ~2%.
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