Network Network Load Balancing enables organizations to cluster up to 32 computers running Windows Advanced Server to balance the flow of incoming traffic while maintaining the health of the monitoring server and NIC. The dual benefits of a simplified and enhanced scalability combined with high availability enable Network Load Balancing (NLB) capabilities to complement those of e-business applications, host applications, and Terminal Services applications. Network Load Balancing (NLB) introduces software scalability concepts that enable administrators to increase the processing power of their server areas by simply inserting a server configured with NLB.
Benefits of Network Load Balancing include:
Scaling capability
Reduce planned downtime through a full rolling upgrade. Backward-compatible Windows NT Load Balancing Service (WLBS) running on Windows NT Server 4.0.
Load balancing requests for individual TCP/IP services within the cluster.
Supports up to 32 servers in a cluster.
Full-pipe implementation ensures high performance and low overhead.
High Availability
Automatically detect and recover from a failed or offline computer.
The network load is automatically reassigned when the cluster configuration changes.
Restore and redistribute Network load in 10 seconds.
Handle inadvertently caused subnets and rejoin the network cluster.
Controllability
Specify load balancing for a single IP port or a group of ports by customizing the workload for each server using the direct port management rule.
Supports client sessions and SSL.
A single host rule can be selected to assign all customer requests to a single host to improve load balancing among different applications.
By using console commands or scripts, you can remotely start, stop, and control NLB operations from any networked Windows 2000 or Windows NT operating system.
Easy to use
Integrates with the network infrastructure of Windows Advanced server.
No specialized hardware is required.
Allows users to access the cluster with a single Internet logical name and IP address while retaining unique names for each computer.
You can run an NLB cluster without modifying the server application.
Most operations, including failure recovery, do not require manual intervention.
Allow the computer to go offline for preventative maintenance without affecting cluster operations.
