is configured only on the primary CSM. The secondary will learn its IP address through the fault tolerance configuration. A gateway must also be configured for the client VLAN. The gateway is often an SVI on the 6500 switch, but it can be any IP address you like on the VLAN: vlan 3 client ip address 10.5.5.3 255.255.255.0 alt 10.5.5.4 255.255.255.0 gateway 10.5.5.1 The server VLAN must be configured with primary and secondary IP addresses (assuming a failover pair of CSMs), but it does not require a gateway. An alias IP address must also be configured when using failover. This alias IP address is the IP address that the real servers will use as their default gateway. If you do not include an alias, and use only the IP address of the CSM VLAN, the CSMs will still failover, but the servers will not be able to route because the primary address will cease to exist in a failure: vlan 4 server ip address 10.10.10.2 255.255.0.0 alt 10.10.10.3 255.255.0.0 alias 10.10.10.1 The Cisco documentation regarding the alias command is not clear. I recommend testing failover thoroughly in a lab environment before you implement a CSM. The need for the alias command is not very clear in the documentation, and leaving it out has burned me in the field. Real servers Real servers are configured with the CSM command real. The simplest form of a real server configuration lists the IP address and its status: real CONTENT-01 address 10.10.10.17 inservice Chapter 27: Server Load-Balancing Technology real CONTENT-02 address 10.10.10.18 inservice real CONTENT-03 address 10.10.10.18 inservice Server farms Server farms are configured with the CSM command serverfarm. The nat server and no nat client commands are defaults, and are usually what you'll need. Here, I've created a server farm named CONTENT_FARM. The server farm is composed of the three real servers configured previously: serverfarm CONTENT FARM nat server no nat client real name CONTENT-01 inservice real name CONTENT-02 inservice real name CONTENT-03 inservice Notice that you can put