# Hybrid frameworks

**URL:** <https://discuss.flower.ai/t/hybrid-frameworks/1198>\
**Category:** Flower Help - Intermediate\
**Tags:** flower\
**Created:** [January 19, 2026, 12:23pm UTC](https://discuss.flower.ai/t/hybrid-frameworks/1198 "2026-01-19T12:23:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chadib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@chadib](https://discuss.flower.ai/u/chadib)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 12:23pm UTC](https://discuss.flower.ai/t/hybrid-frameworks/1198/1 "2026-01-19T12:23:04Z")

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[DISCLAIMER: Not sure if this is a beginner issue or intermediate or more advanced]  
I’m setting up a FL example on a compute cluster where the mother node has access to the Internet (and will be the Superlink of the application) and the supernodes are either **local nodes on the same cluster** (with **no access** to the Internet) or **remote clients**.

Prior knowledge:

- communication between the mother node and the local compute nodes is done over InfiniBand which from what I’ve read does not play well with GRPC.
- the examples I’ve set up so far do not yet include the remote clients.

My experiments have worked only in _insecure_ mode; I use the InfiniBand addresses and the nodes communicate correctly and everything works fine.  
When I try to implement _secure_ mode; the supernodes can’t connect to the superlink `WARNING : Connection attempt failed, retrying in XX seconds`, but the superlink outputs with `ssl_transport_security.cc:2396] No match found for server name: [INFINIBAND ADDRESS HERE]` which tells me that the incoming connection does reach somehow. Any idea what might be happening here?

Also, my main problem here is that when I do implement the larger example see attached diagram, I need to have _secure_ enabled to communicate with the remote clients.

 ![framework](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/flower/original/1X/9ae81b9a71b17dc2d69ec963dfaa4b9864db5cf4.jpeg)

So my question is this: is it possible to implement a hybrid workflow where some clients use _insecure_ and others use _secure_? If so, is there a tutorial somewhere that I may have missed?

Thanks a lot for your help!

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**Author:** ![pan-h](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/discuss.flower.ai/pan-h/32/67_2.png) [@pan-h](https://discuss.flower.ai/u/pan-h)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2026, 10:56am UTC](https://discuss.flower.ai/t/hybrid-frameworks/1198/2 "2026-01-27T10:56:43Z")

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Hi @chadib,

I am afraid Flower currently does **not** support mixing TLS and non-TLS connections to the same SuperLink. If the SuperLink is started with TLS enabled, all connecting SuperNodes must also use TLS.

Regarding the error you’re seeing (`No match found for server name`), this is likely due to **TLS hostname verification** : the InfiniBand address used by the SuperNode does not match the SAN / CN in the server certificate.

For a hybrid setup (local insecure + remote secure clients), Flower doesn’t provide native support. One possible workaround is to run the SuperLink without TLS and place a **TLS-terminating proxy / relay** (e.g. a gRPC-capable proxy) in front of it for remote clients. Local SuperNodes would connect directly, while remote ones connect via the proxy.

There isn’t a Flower tutorial for this setup at the moment, and implementing a custom gRPC relay is possible but fairly advanced.