Load balance on Win2003??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Grosz
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Steve Grosz

I'm thinking about venturing into the world of load balancing!
Yahoo...... Anyway, I was wondering if anyone who has done this on
Win2003 could recommend a good place (site/documentation) on how to get
started?

Currently I have 1 server that serves as both DNS/IIS server, and
several other machines running IIS.

The DNS/IIS machine has 2 NIC's now, but I can certainly add another one
for the load balancing if necessary.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!
Steve
 
Steve Grosz said:
The DNS/IIS machine has 2 NIC's now, but I can certainly add another one
for the load balancing if necessary.
Click to expand...

That is not load balancing. NLB is done with one nic in each server. It
balances multiple servers, not multiple Nics.

Running multiple redundant Nics is called "Nic Teaming" and requires special
Nics with special software to accomplish this.
 
I guess I should have been more clear. I can add a 3rd NIC for just the
load balancing portion if necessary. It was my understanding that the
load balancing needed to be dedicated to a single NIC in each machine.
 
Steve Grosz said:
I guess I should have been more clear. I can add a 3rd NIC for just the
load balancing portion if necessary. It was my understanding that the
load balancing needed to be dedicated to a single NIC in each machine.
Click to expand...

That part I don't know,...but I will say that the nightmare increases
drastically with each Nic added to the machine. The best situation is one
Nic only,..total,..plain and simple.
 
Steve Grosz said:
I'm thinking about venturing into the world of load balancing!
Yahoo...... Anyway, I was wondering if anyone who has done this on
Win2003 could recommend a good place (site/documentation) on how to get
started?
Click to expand...

Key 'NLB' into the search box at http://microsoft.com

I suggest you read through that lot twice over.
Currently I have 1 server that serves as both DNS/IIS server, and
several other machines running IIS.

The DNS/IIS machine has 2 NIC's now, but I can certainly add another one
for the load balancing if necessary.
Click to expand...

Well - there's a whole bundle of options, but I can give an overview of
how I last did it.

Each server in the NLB cluster has two NICs - I use one for the public
network and one for private/management network.

assign each public nic an IP on the same subnet. then also assign a
secondary IP (to the same nic) for the NLB - this is the same IP on each
machine and again is on the same subnet.

install NLB, tick the box and set the properties, largely taking the
defaults.

To get the best out of your NLB, don't include any state support

oh yes - please do create a lab environment to play on before deploying to
a production system.
 
I guess I should have been more clear. I can add a 3rd NIC for just the
load balancing portion if necessary. It was my understanding that the
load balancing needed to be dedicated to a single NIC in each machine.
Click to expand...

It's still not clear here. Do you have one server or two? NIC
teaming is a single server with two NIC's answering requests. Load
Balancing is two servers, each answering on the same virtual IP.

If the former, it requires drivers from your NIC manufacturer that
support teaming. If the latter, Microsoft's site has a ton of info on
setting this up.

Jeff
 
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