Another requirement of transparency is that you must be browsing from a subnet other than that of the Real Servers. Again, it is to ensure that traffic passes in and out of the LoadMaster.

If you are on the same subnet as the Real Server, the return traffic simply goes directly to the client, instead of through the LoadMaster. As a result, the client expects to see traffic come from the IP address of the VS, but instead sees traffic coming from the IP address of the Real Server. When that happens, the client system ignores the traffic.

If transparency is enabled and the clients are in the same subnet as the Real Server, the traffic flows in the following order:

  1. Client to VS
  2. VS to Real Server
  3. Return traffic from Real Server direct to client

The connection fails between the Real Server and the client due to the fact that the clients are in the same subnet as the Real Server.

This is due to asymmetric routing. The client gets a response from the Real Server and drops the connection because it expects a reply from the LoadMaster.