Q. Do the Heartbeat Packets Consume a Lot of Bandwidth?
A. No, the heartbeat packets, which are emitted every second by each host, consume less than 1,500 bytes.
Q. Do the Heartbeats Need to Go on a Back-End Network?
A. No, the heartbeat packets are always sent out on the same network interface on which data packets are received and sent. There is no need for an additional back-end network for the control (heartbeat) packets. In fact, in order to be able to detect connectivity failures on the load-balanced network adapter, NLB actually requires that heartbeats traverse the load-balanced network adapter.
Q. Is NLB a Kernel Component?
A. Yes, NLB has a kernel component called wlbs.sys. This is an intermediate NDIS driver. NLB also has user-mode components for management purposes.
Q. What are the Benefits of NLB Over Simple Round Robin Domain Name Service (RRDNS)?
A.
- Automatic recovery within 5 seconds
- More even load balancing
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