How to load balance HTTP traffic with WLBS

[spookshow]

To load balance traffic to Web servers using Windows NT Load Balancing Service (WLBS), perform the following steps:

1. Web servers typically listen on port 80. Configure one port rule on all cluster hosts for a port range of 80 to 80 and select Both for protocols (TCP and UDP).
2. Click to select Multiple Hosts. Affinity should be set to None, unless the Web server maintains client state in its memory, in which case Affinity must be set to either Single or Class C.

If you want to load balance HTTP over SSL (encrypted Web traffic), you need to configure a rule for this type of traffic; usually, the port is 443. Us the following steps:

1. Set up a rule for a port range of 443 to 443, both TCP and UDP.
2. Set Affinity to either Single or Class C to ensure that the client connections are always handled by the server that has the SSL session established.

[Sabastiaan]

NLB is the equivalent of WLBS (available for NT Enterprise Edition). It allows the realization of fault tolerance for services TCP / IP (http, ftp, etc.). In general, NLB (or WLBS) is used to make balancing the load for a front end web (example: IIS 4 servers) which is connected to a SQL database (eg clustered). I suggest you read the documentation available in NLB Using Windows 2000 Advanced Server that describes all the steps NLB configuration.