You can install NLB nodes like any other server build. You can install NLB by using either Server Manager or the Windows PowerShell commands for NLB.
First make sure that all NLB servers have the most current updates, provisioned with appropriate resources (typically with multiple network interface cards for capacity and responsiveness), and monitored for health and reliability. In Exercise 13.1, I will walk you through the installation of your NLB nodes.
EXERCISE 13.1
Installing NLB Nodes
- Once you have multiple hosts ready for the installation of NLB, run the Add Roles And Features Wizard and select Network Load Balancing in the Features area of the wizard.
If the Add Features dialog box appears, click Add Features.
2. Click Next. At the Confirmation screen, click the Install button. After the installation is finished, click the Close button and then close Server Manager.
3. Check that the wizard has placed the Network Load Balancing Manager in your Start menu under Windows Administrative Tools (see Figure 13.1).
FIGURE 13.1 Network Load Balancing
4. Right- click Network Load Balancing Clusters and select New Cluster (see Figure 13.2).
EXERCISE 13.1 (continued)
5. You are then presented with the New Cluster: Connect Wizard, where you can specify the name of one of your hosts. Type the name of one of your cluster nodes and click Connect (see Figure 13.3). After the connection is made, the TCP/IP address will be shown. Click Next.
FIGURE 13.3 Hostname setup
6. If you see a DHCP dialog box, disable DHCP on this adapter. Click OK.
7. The next page reveals a prompt to add any additional IPs and assign a priority level. You can do all this later, so click Next. If you see a No Dedicated IP Addresses dialog box, click Yes.
8. The next wizard page is where you specify the cluster IP address. This is the address that the endpoints or clients or users of the NLB cluster will contact. Typically, the network team will assign a cluster IP address for this use (see Figure 13.4). Click OK, then click Next.
FIGURE 13.4 Add IP Address
9. On the next page, configure the Cluster operation mode (see Figure 13.5) and specify a Full Internet Name.
EXERCISE 13.1 (continued)
FIGURE 13.5 Cluster parameters
With regard to the cluster operation modes, the differences between them are as follows:
Unicast
The cluster adapters for all nodes are assigned the same MAC address.
The outgoing MAC address for each packet is modified based on priority to prevent upstream switches from discovering that all nodes have the same MAC address.
Communication between cluster nodes (other than heartbeat and other administrative NLB traffic) is not possible unless there are additional adapters (because all nodes have the same MAC address).
Depending on load, this configuration can cause switch flooding since all inbound packets are sent to all ports on the switch.
Multicast
The cluster adapters for all nodes are assigned their own MAC unicast address.
The cluster adapters for all nodes are assigned a multicast MAC address (derived from the IP of the cluster).
Non- NLB network traffic between cluster nodes works fine since they all have their own MAC address.
IGMP Multicast
This is much like multicast, but the MAC traffic goes only to the switch ports of the NLB cluster, preventing switch flooding.
10. After you select the appropriate settings, the next page is where port rules (see Figure 13.6) are configured. By default, it is set up to be wide open. Most implementations will limit NLB ports to just the ports needed for the application. For example, a web server would need port 80 enabled. It is also in this area where you can configure filtering mode.
FIGURE 13.6 Port Rules
The affinity sets a client’s preference to a particular NLB host. It is not recommended to set affinity to None when UDP is an expected traffic type.
11. Click the Finish button. Close the NLB Manager.
