Nginx with LVS on Linux

[hirantha]

Hi,

I'm planing to use nginx on existing LVS load balancer with more than 10 
numbers of web servers as back-ends. My main objective is to use nginx 
as a reverse-proxy while compressing the data streaming. Since the LVS 
running on Linux, I have planned to run the Nginx on the same Linux box 
though I have tested it on FreeBSD.

Here is the setup I am looking for

[CLIENT] --> [NGINX+LVS+PULSE] --> [WEB SERVER FLEET]

I will be running LVS for to load balance user connections requesting 
coming through Nginx and forward to back-end servers in Round-robin 
algorithm . LVS also handing the the persistence, healthchecks and 
failovers with pulse (piranha).

I would like to know is there a performance degration on Nginx when 
moving from FreeBSD to Linux (Rhel5)..?
I will be testing the setup to run nginx and lvs on same box but is this 
feasible..? I googled but haven't seen any posts regards to nginx+lvs.

I wonder is there any way that we could run nginx with keepalived while 
nginx to handle the load balancing and completely replace LVS. Right now 
I'm running two back-end servers front-end with nginx reverse-proxy; 
every time when I refresh the browser it connecting to back-end servers 
in round-robin method. I can't keep the session connected to single 
back-end server (persistence).

I would really appreciate your advice.

Thanks in advance
Hirantha