A Red Hat Enterprise Linux LVS cluster consists of two basic groups: the LVS routers and the real servers. To prevent a single point of failure, each groups should contain at least two member systems.

The LVS router group should consist of two identical or very similar systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux. One will act as the active LVS router while the other stays in hot standby mode, so they need to have as close to the same capabilities as possible.

Before choosing and configuring the hardware for the real server group, you most decide what which of the three types of LVS topologies to use.