Windows 2000 Network Load Balancing

Troy Reavis Jr. Support Engineer Product Support Services Microsoft Corporation

What Does Network Load Balancing (NLB) Add to My Business?

Availability

Heartbeat

Load Balancing/Performance

Algorithm Convergence Quickly add node

Scalability

What Is the Difference Between Microsoft Cluster Server and NLB?

Microsoft Cluster Server

Multiple, distinct applications Maximum of two systems/nodes Example uses: SQL, databases, and so on

Network Load Balancing

Balance IP traffic across nodes TCP/IP and related protocols only Maximum of 32 systems/nodes Example uses: HTTP, FTP, and so on

Requirements for NLB

Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server 1 MB of disk space and 4 MB of RAM TCP/IP Protocol FDDI, Ethernet LAN, or Gigabit Ethernet Hosts must reside on same subnet Only enabled on one NIC per machine

How Does NLB Load Balance?

NLB resides between NIC driver TCP/IP Each packet coming in goes to every node Nodes will drop packets according to rules and algorithm

Unicast Mode

Single MAC address used MAC used is virtual/shared MAC Always starts with 02-bf Cant communicate with other nodes on NIC with NLB installed Default setting

Multicast Mode

Uses both virtual/shared MAC and dedicated MAC Virtual MAC always starts with 03-bf Ability to communicate with other nodes on NIC that NLB is installed

Layer 2 vs. Layer 3 Switches

Layer 2 switches work at MAC address level Registry changes to keep Layer 2 switches from learning shared MAC address Layer 3 switches work at IP address level Because NLB relies on shared IP Layer 3 wont work

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Convergence

Distributed mechanism for determining cluster status Also for adjusting load distribution Convergence begins when:

Specified number of heartbeats are missed New node is added

Takes approximately three seconds

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Heartbeat

Each host broadcasts a 1.5 KB heartbeat packet once a second (configurable) If one node misses five heartbeats convergence starts for remaining nodes (configurable)

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Affinity
Affinity Load Balancing Granularity Individual TCP connections All connections originating from the same source Hashed on Used for

None

Source IP address and port Source IP address

Most applications

Single

Session support, SSL, and multi-connection protocols (i.e., FTP, PPTP, and so on)

Class C

All connections originating from the same class C address space

Source IP address with class C mask applied to it

Properly handling sessions for users residing behind scaling proxy arrays

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NLB Driver Interface

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Cluster Parameters Setup

Primary IP address is clusterwide virtual IP address Subnet mask is mask for primary IP Full Internet name should resolve to primary IP Network address is MAC used for all nodes

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Host Parameters Setup

Priority ranks host in cluster Initial forces host to join cluster at boot Dedicated IP is IP other than virtual IP for cluster Subnet mask is mask for dedicated IP

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Port Rules Setup

Describes how NLB filters traffic for specific ports Three possible filtering modes:

Single host Multiple hosts Disabled

Default is a wide-open port rule

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Wlbs.exe Command Line-Driven Tools

Help Displays help information Setup Runs nlb setup dialog Reload Reload nlb parameters Start/Stop Affects nlb operation to host Enable/Disable x Affects traffic to port x on host Query Reports cluster status Display Displays extensive status information, parameters, and event log messages
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NLB in the Registry (Q193601)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CCS\Svcs \WLBS\Parameters
(Note that the registry key name has been wrapped for readability.)

AliveMsgPeriod period between I am alive messages broadcast by each host AliveMsgTolerance number of periods to wait before declaring a host dead MaskSourceMAC - Set to 1 (default) if running on a switch in unicast mode, set to 0 if running on a hub uplinked to a switch
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