Having discussed a basic setup in our last part of our “cookbook” series, this time we want to look at some details. We will do this using a checklist with explanations.

The topics:

More than 95% of our customers use the LoadMaster in pairs. This is quite obvious, especially if it’s not only all about performance and scalability, but also about availability when the LoadMaster should not be a “Single Point of Failure”. This combination of two load balancers is usually referred to as HA-Setup (HA = High Availability).

Default settings

The default setting for this example is the system I have described in the previous “cookbook” article.

Who likes reading manuals...? 

Here are 3 simple examples to make installation work with the new LoadBalancer:

• Load Balancing for Web servers
• Load Balancing with SSL-Offloading (SSL acceleration) for SSL-web server
• Load Balancing for Windows Terminal Server.

You can of course try all this with the free LoadBalancer using VMware / Hyper-V. http://www.kemptechnologies.com/try

Here is the long promised part of the “Cookbook” Series which explains the easy steps to a LoadBalancer setup. This article particularly applies to test users: The installation and activation of a LoadBalancer virtual application as a packet in Hyper-V or VMware. Let’s start: 

Decision for a virtualisation Platform

The VLM is currently available for VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V. Which one should you take? It doesn’t really matter as the appearance will be the same.  So feel free to make the decision on your personal preferences.

Load balancers should not be a “Single Point of Failure”, so usually they are used in pairs. Quiet simple actually, but what to do if it doesn’t work out?

Here is a short summary of typical errors and their solutions.

When setting up a Microsoft Exchange infrastructure you need to consider the network topology (or network layout). This includes servers, switches, firewalls, and hardware LoadBalancers.

This being a typical beginner question we will explain a few simple examples, discuss potential difficulties and advanced setups. High Availability is a must in this context. Therefore the examples will include two LoadBalancers (“High Availability pair” or “HA-cluster”).

An absolute basic Load Balancing situation: A new connection request appears – to which server shall it be forwarded?

Its common wisdom that you should always have an up to date backup of any computer, certainly not only in the context of Server Load Balancing. In reality this needs a high level of discipline – or else the risk of not having an up to date backup at a crucial moment.

Once it starts getting complicated with Routing, Transparency, NAT and so on, it’s sometimes best to have a direct look at the LoadMaster’s network interface, to see what really goes in and out.
For such Ethernet-Traces there are free standard tools like tcpdump (Logging) and Wireshark (Analysis). Let’s check out some use cases.
Tcpdump can be accessed via command line, using either ssh or the console with these menu items:
7 – Utilities
8 – Diagnostics
9 -  Diagnostic Shell

SSL-Acceleration is one of the biggest advantages of a suitable Load Balancer – for many users actually the principal purpose. But does it work in any case? Yes it does, if some requirements are fulfilled. First let’s have a look at what SSL-Acceleration means.