Windows Server AppFabric Web Farm with NLB

Question

We have the need to setup a highly available load balanced Windows Server AppFabric environment. Is there a guide on how to setup a web farm with NLB configured?  Our operations team tried to use the Web Farm Framework 2.2 to create the web farm and then configure windows NLB on the machines but we haven’t managed to get it to work. Have anyone done this before? What’s the best practice and the recommended way of doing this?

Cheers,

 

Answer 1

Here is a good resource on AppFabric and NLB: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/appfabric-web-farm-guide-intro.aspx.

This does not mention the web farm framework but relies on some PowerShell scripting based on the AppFabric cmdlets.

I have looked at the web farm framework before and it gives you some scriptable deployment options for managing websites using the IIS/Application Server PowerShell cmdlets and other techniques. If you are trying to automate everything then it seems like you would use the web farm framework for steps before and/or after the AppFabric cmdlets.

Thanks,

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If this answers your question, please use the "Answer" button to say so | Ben Cline

Answer 2

Hi Ben,

 

I've seen that resource. I'm not interested in how to install and configure AppFabric but after a guide that explains how to create a web farm with NLB configured. Currently we have configured Windows NLB which gives you failover and load balancing but not a web farm per say. The web farm framework assists you with setting up a web farm but we never got it to work. 

 

Ershad

Answer 3

There are a lot of good resources over at iis.net. Have you seen these ones: http://www.iis.net/search.aspx?q=web+farm+framework. I did not see a really good comprehensive guide, more a collection of different articles. I did see NLB coming up in a few of the articles. It also mentions ARR which is another load balancing component that is software based.

Thanks,

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If this answers your question, please use the "Answer" button to say so | Ben Cline

Answer 4

Hi Ben,

Yes I have seen those but nothing really that could guide us on how to set up a web farm + NLB. Anyway thanks, I think we stick to just Windows NLB for now and dig into to it again when time allows.

Cheers,

Ershad