does anyone know how to set this up in unicast mode using 2 nics (2nd one just as the "heartbeat")

i've tried a buncha times but i can't seem to get it to work properly. i can ping the virtual ip from the clustered servers themselves but not from any other machines.
please help!

 

Does this help?

http://searchwincomputing.techtarget...229240,00.html

 

Whiskers, i already got that down, but i still can't get it to work. this is the setup i have:

2 servers
unicast mode
2 nics on each server
1st nic is its live ip address: 172.18.1.131, 172.18.1.132
2nd nic ip address: 1.1.1.1, 1.1.1.2
cluster name is ewebcluster.xxx.com
cluster ip: 172.18.1.28
subnet: 255.255.255.0

172.18.1.28 has been added to the additional ip info in the 1.1.1.1 nic as well as the 1.1.1.2 nic.

am i missing anything here? thats what i have going but it doesn't seem to work.
the only thing i can think of is maybe because there is no gateway set on the 1.1.1.1/1.1.1.2 address?

ideas?

thanks!

 

I'm a network engineer who runs web hosting data centers and the first thing I did upon moving to my latest gig is rip out all the WLB and replace with some F5s. Granted hardware load balacing isn't available to all people becuase it's expensive but I would highly reccomend it if you can do it.

What kind of switch are the WLB servers plugged into. If they are low end switches they might not support the protocol that WLB uses to advertise it's virtual IP. If you have the capability to use multi-cast and not uni-cast you should definitely do that as well.

 

You said the servers can see the load balanced ip but other machines cannot see the load balanced IP. Are the servers that cannot see the load balanced ip plugged into the same switch or are they cross connected in on a different switch?

EDIT: One other note(this may or may not be an issue depending on how your switches are vlan'd) 1.1.1.1 / 255.255.255.0 does nto exist on the same IP scope as 172.18.1.28. You would want to put the load balanced IP on the following set of nics: 172.18.1.131, 172.18.1.132.

 

please explain..give me the exact setup?

the heartbeat nic is going directly from nic1 to nic2 via crossover cable on the server. there is no switch involved. i only used the 1.1.1.1/1.1.1.2 because it shouldn't be a live ip (correct me if i'm wrong here) as long as i can ping from 1.1.1.1 to 1.1.1.2 i should be ok...correct?

either way if you can give me the breakdown of how this should be configed, please let me know. also just to mention, the load balancing service isn't enabled on the primary nic.. (as i believe it shouldn't be needed)

 

One more question first. Do you want this load balanced IP to be used for serve out a website? IE what is the exact end desired results of having the windows IP in your environment.

 

yes it is going to be used as a frontend server for sharepoint.

 

While waiting for you to write back I'll take a stab that the following is probably what you really want:

2 servers
multicast mode(if possible)
2 nics on each server
1st nic is its live ip address: 172.18.1.131, 172.18.1.132
2nd nic ip address: 1.1.1.1, 1.1.1.2
cluster name is ewebcluster.xxx.com
cluster ip: 172.18.1.28
subnet: 255.255.255.0

172.18.1.28 should be created on a cluster taht is associated with 172.18.1.131, 172.18.1.132. It should be added to the additional IP info on those nics. IIS can then be configured to use the IP 172.18.1.28 to server out a website on both boxes. Only the server that is currently the active host of 172.18.1.28 will actually server out the site.(or you can use one of the other metrics to load balance traffic between the two)

If you associate the IP 172.18.1.28 to 1.1.1.1 and 1.1.1.2 it will only be available on the network those NICs are connected to. That won't be very useful since they are cross connected straight to eacother. Since they are cross connected and have a mask of 255.255.255.0 it is also an inavlid IP for that cross connected network.

 

so where do i enable the load balancing service? on the 2nd nics or on the first? i must use multicast..

also, your saying that i add the 172.18.1.28 ip to the primary ip list in the advanced section of the properties?

 

i need to also add that the 2nd nic is ONLY for NLB.. no other traffic (hence direct connect from one server to the other)

 

Enable load balancing service on nics 172.18.1.131, 172.18.1.132. Create a cluster address 172.18.1.28 which shoudl be added to the additional info section on Nic 172.18.1.131 and 172.18.1.132

Once that is done set up IIS/sharepoint etc to listen on 172.18.1.28 and you should be home free.

 

ok i just did what you said with the same config (using unicast and it looks like its working..the only thing is that on one of the boxes, its trying to pick up a ip address and says that there is a ip conflict..

suggestions?

 

Understood. The way I outline was to set up NLB with only 2 nic cards. We could set it up using 2 for static Ips and 2 for NLB. In order to user all four with windows load balancing all four would need to be connected to the same network, however, and not cross connected to eachother.

 

so i can't use a cross connect to do the 2 NLB ips?

 

No sir. Windows load balancing tries to advertise the "load balanced IP' via whichever nics the load balanced cluster is assigned to.

If you assign the load balanced cluster to the cross connected nics the load balanced Ip will be advertised on taht network. That is not useful for what you want to do. You need the cluster to advertise itself on the main network.

Here is another layout you could use in order to use all 4 nics.

Nic 1 and 2 connected to main network with IP 172.18.1.131, 132
Nic 3 and 4 connected to the main network with IP 172.18.1.133, 134.
Load balanced cluster created on nics 3 and 4 with ip 172.18.1.28. 172.18.1.28 added to the additional IP info on nic3 and nic4.

This would result in :
1) nic 1 and 2 having only static IPs on the network and not being involed with NLB
2) nic 3 and 4 hosting the load balanced IP.
3) All 4 nics connected to the main network.

 

that would be using multicast correct? i can't use multicast as my switch doesn't allow the ARPs..i have to use unicast...

 

 

thats what i said...it still dont work

 

ttt

anyone else? still couldn't get this to work

 

ttt still couldn't get this to work