Propalms and Network Load Balancing, in the Other SBC Products forum on BrianMadden.com

Hello!

We recently implemented the terminal software from propalms. We have a 2 identical (software/hardware) server farm. We then implemented NLB (Network Load Balancing) using windows 2003 server since each server has 2 nics. It looks something like so:

propalms-Win2k3-Server1
nic1 = 10.0.0.1
nic2NLB = 10.0.0.20

propalms-Win2k3-Server2
nic1 = 10.0.0.2
nic2NLB = 10.0.0.20

We then tested with Remote desktop and can disconnect to "any" server whether server1 or server2 is disconnected. So NLB is indeed working correctly.

We then tried doing the same with propalms and it fails whenever the master server (server1) is disconnected. If server2 is disconnected instead it works fine even though the icons (ie: Propalms Desktop Icon) is published using the NLB ip of 10.0.0.20.

Has anyone been able to implement NLB using propalms? Is it even possible? Anyone have any ideas I can try?

The goal is to make the setup easier for our users when we decide to add/remove a server. Since our users will connect to the NLB ip we can add/remove as many servers as we want without disruption to the user. Currently we have to tell our users to instead use ip1 or ip2 or ip3, etcc...

Thanks,

Irving

Hi Irving,

I have Propalms NLB running and working well.

You have to make sure your "master server" is not also performing the Web Server role.

If you shut down this server then no clients will be able to access any of the load balancer servers in your farm.

For Propalms NLB to work well you have to assign the Web Server role to a server that is not also a load balancer or an application server. That is, you must have a single server performing only the web server role.

Check out the Propalms Admin guide for a description of the server roles and what they do.

John