Load balancing 2 : architectural challenge?

External Since: Dec 16, 2003 Posts: 1

Since I posted the original thread [Load balancing : stupid logic?], the
equation has somewhat changed. Instead of having NT4.0 and IIS4.0, we
will be hopping to Microsoft Windows 2003 Server.

The post is somewhat long and I have numbered questions for your
convenience. Please feel free to reply to a selective portion and remove
the rest so that the 'post' size can remain manageable Smile

1)What kind of Load balancing features are available in this [Windows
2003] environment?
Also, my company purchased a F5 BigIP Load Balancer [without consulting
or evaluating other load balancing techniques that so many brilliant
people on my previous thread spoke about] some time back and 'want' to
'use' it no matter what.

2) I am aware of the 'basic' differences between using a hardware load
balancer and something like NLB. What according to you are the major
differences between the two that would tilt the decision against / for one?

The hardware that we have at our disposal now is 2 boxes [high capacity
, CPU x 4] which will be web servers and another 2 boxes [database servers].

3) What I am keen on is utilizing the Windows NLB service and am
wondering if it is possible to use the Big IP LB in conjunction with it.
The architecture that I have in mind is similar to what is illustrated here;
http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/deploy/co...at/imag
[Original ref:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/pro...chnol/w

The difference being that I want communication to front-end-lan [as
displayed in the diagram] to happen via the Hardware load balancer.

4) I am also thinking about redundancy of database servers, what do you
think is the best possible way(s) to do it? Is it possible to have 2
database servers in a cluster [shared storage] with a cluster of load
balanced web servers writing and reading [same application] from the
same database?
[look at the back-end LAN part in the GIF link provided above]
What is needed to implement this on Windows 2003 server running SQL 2000?

5) Using a solution such as NLB, its possible to keep your ASP code in
sync between all load balanced servers by using a service such as
IISSYNC [if i am not mistaken]. Is there something available to
synchronize my code across web servers if I am using a hardware load
balanced solution?

Thank you very much for going through my post and thanks in advance for
your expert replies to my queries.

Buzz.

External Since: Aug 28, 2003 Posts: 617

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 08:14:19 +0800, BuzzLightyear
<noname.RemoveThis@dontspam.urat> wrote:

>1)What kind of Load balancing features are available in this [Windows
>2003] environment?
>Also, my company purchased a F5 BigIP Load Balancer [without consulting
>or evaluating other load balancing techniques that so many brilliant
>people on my previous thread spoke about] some time back and 'want' to
>'use' it no matter what.
Windows Server 2003 builds on the high availability capabilities of
Windows 2000. You could either use clustering or NLB.
However, using NLB would be a waste of time as you already have a very
reliable load balancing solution with your BigIP load balancer.
>2) I am aware of the 'basic' differences between using a hardware load
>balancer and something like NLB. What according to you are the major
>differences between the two that would tilt the decision against / for one?
The key difference is that there is no software overhead when using a
hardware load balancer, although the overhead with NLB is negligible.

>The hardware that we have at our disposal now is 2 boxes [high capacity
>, CPU x 4] which will be web servers and another 2 boxes [database servers].
>
>3) What I am keen on is utilizing the Windows NLB service and am
>wondering if it is possible to use the Big IP LB in conjunction with it.
>The architecture that I have in mind is similar to what is illustrated here;
>http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/deploy/confeat/images/NLBOVW01.GIF
>[Original ref:
>http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/deploy/confeat/nlbovw.asp]
>
>The difference being that I want communication to front-end-lan [as
>displayed in the diagram] to happen via the Hardware load balancer.
Using NLB is unecessary if you have a hardware solution in place.

>4) I am also thinking about redundancy of database servers, what do you
>think is the best possible way(s) to do it? Is it possible to have 2
>database servers in a cluster [shared storage] with a cluster of load
>balanced web servers writing and reading [same application] from the
>same database?
>What is needed to implement this on Windows 2003 server running SQL 2000?
You need to create a cluster using the cluster service in W2K3 and
install SQL 2000 Enterprise Edition onto that cluster. This is a
common architecture which I have built many times myself. It is very
resiliant and will support your application requirements.

>5) Using a solution such as NLB, its possible to keep your ASP code in
>sync between all load balanced servers by using a service such as
>IISSYNC [if i am not mistaken]. Is there something available to
>synchronize my code across web servers if I am using a hardware load
>balanced solution?
Application Center will do this for you.

Regards,

Paul Lynch
MCSE