Failover between Windows2000 Servers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blades
  • Start date Start date
B

Blades

Hello,

I would like to know if it's possible to a failover
between Win2000 servers. Host A and Host B are serving as
main and backup-server. In case Host A is outaged, host B
has to take over (same hostname, ip-addr., ...). Is this
kind of failover possible in Windows (without using
clusters). It is allowed to interupt an ongoing session !

Thanx for your suggetions.

Blades
 
It's important to be precise with terminology here.

"Server clustering," or better "clustering services," can fail over databases,
IP addresses and hostnames, file shares, and so on from the active computer
to the backup computer.

"Network load balancing services" (NLBS) is principally a means to achieve
higher throughput by having multiple individual computers appear as a single
node (using virtual IP addresses). It does have the added value of dropping
dead node members from the cluster, but since NLBS is only computer-aware
and not service-aware you shouln't rely on it if your primary need is for
high availability without writing health-checking tools.

Steve Riley
(e-mail address removed)
 
This would be the difference between NLB with Server2000/2003 Standard and
what the additional possibilities are with the Enterprise/Advanced versions
of these OS's?

I have never been totally clear on the details of that.

--

Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com
 
For Windows 2000 Server, NLBS was included only in Enterprise Edition, not
in Standard.

For Windows Server 2003, NLBS is included in all editions: Standard, Enterprise,
Datacenter, Web, and 64-bit. Server clusters are available only in Enterprise
and Datacenter. There is no difference in the functionality of NLBS among
the various editions.

Here's some text I copied from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/features/featuresorterresults.aspx.

Network load balancing clusters
-------------------------------
Network Load Balancing distributes incoming TCP/IP traffic among multiple
servers. This functionality was previously known as Windows NT Load Balancing
Service (WLBS). Through clustered applications, especially Web server applications,
your server can handle more traffic, provide higher availability, and provide
faster response times.

Server clusters
---------------
Server clusters provide high availability, scalability, and manageability
for important resources and applications. Multiple servers (nodes) in a cluster
remain in constant communication. If one of the nodes in a cluster becomes
unavailable-for example, because of a failure or maintenance downtime-another
node immediately provides service. This process is known as failover. Users
who access the cluster remain continually connected to server-based resources.
With Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter
Edition, you can configure server or Network Load Balancing cluster models,
depending on your requirements.


Steve Riley
(e-mail address removed)
 
Steve Riley said:
Network load balancing clusters
-------------------------------
Network Load Balancing distributes incoming TCP/IP traffic among multiple
servers. This functionality was previously known as Windows NT Load Balancing
Service (WLBS). Through clustered applications, especially Web server applications,
your server can handle more traffic, provide higher availability, and provide
faster response times.

Server clusters
---------------
Server clusters provide high availability, scalability, and manageability
for important resources and applications. Multiple servers (nodes) in a cluster
remain in constant communication. If one of the nodes in a cluster becomes
unavailable-for example, because of a failure or maintenance downtime-another
node immediately provides service. This process is known as failover. Users
who access the cluster remain continually connected to server-based resources.
With Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter
Edition, you can configure server or Network Load Balancing cluster models,
depending on your requirements.
Click to expand...

I guess I am not seeing a clear distinction between the two. Maybe I just
need it explained in one simple sentence. I haven't taken time to look at
the link yet,...but if it is long and complex I'll probably run out of
patients and not finish it.
 
They are totally different services.

NLBS load-balances incoming connections to multiple identical boxes. Each
box must have the same copy of all content. You assign a virtual IP to the
cluster and then put an "A" record for that in your DNS server. All NLBS
can do is direct incoming IP requests to a particular node by keeping track
of the load on all nodes. If one node dies, NLBS pulls it out of the cluster.

Clustering services is a different beast. Here you define "resources" that
are shared -- IP addresses, computer names, disk resources, application resources.
One node in the cluster owns all of that. If it dies, cluster services moves
all the resources over to another node.

NLBS is for firewalls and web servers. Clustering services is for databases
and file servers. Read some more pages on the link I sent before if you want
even more detail.

Steve Riley
(e-mail address removed)
 
I would like to know if it's possible to a failover
between Win2000 servers. Host A and Host B are serving as
main and backup-server. In case Host A is outaged, host B
has to take over (same hostname, ip-addr., ...). Is this
kind of failover possible in Windows (without using
clusters). It is allowed to interupt an ongoing session !
Click to expand...

Clustering or third party software, not native.

Jeff
 
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