Windows 2003 Server Network Load Balancing

 

Cluster Parameters
192.168.10.178 (shared/cluster machine IP)
255.255.255.0
yourcompany.com

Host Parameters
192.168.10.175 (actual machine IP)
255.255.255.0

Port Rules
All 80-80 Both – Multiple, no priority, equal load, no affinity

 

192.168.10.188 (actual IP, second IP 192.168.10.178)

Note: This is based on using Windows Load Balancing Services (WLBS) and intended to provide you a basis if you choose to use other methods, appliances etc…

1) Determine an IP that will be shared among all servers in your web farm.

2) From one server in your web farm, launch the Network Load Balancing Manager (under the Administrative Tools menu).

3) Right-click on the root node to add a new cluster.

4) Configure the basic Cluster IP configuration (the Cluster IP is the ‘virtual’ IP address that will service all servers in the cluster).

5) In the Cluster Parameters screen, use the actual IP of the server for the Cluster IP and in the Host Parameters screen, use the IP you determined in Step #1 for the Dedicated IP configuration shared across all servers in the web farm.

Note: you should set the operation mode to Multicast if you are using a single adapter. Use Unicast only if you have 2 network cards. NLB will actually create a new IP address on each machine in the cluster and bind it to the specified network adapater. Some network cards require IGMP mode in order to get the cards to converge properly so you will have to do a bit of trial and error to see what works.

6) For Port Rules, since this scenario is a two-server cluster with an equal load, we selected Port Range from/to to be 80, we selected both protocols, and we selected Multiple host for the Filtering mode, and an Equal load.

7) Make sure to select 2 different numbers for Priority (unique host identifier).