Platform Deployment Guide › iConsole Deployment › Post-deployment Tasks › General Setup Tasks › Set Up iConsole Servers for Network Load Balancing

Set Up iConsole Servers for Network Load Balancing

If required, you can deploy your iConsole servers in a cluster (or Web farm) using the Windows Network Load Balancing technology. If you do implement an iConsole clustered deployment, note the following:

• You can cluster both your application servers and front-end Web servers (both must be installed on each node) or just the front-end Web servers.
• The software environment (operating system and node configuration) must be identical on each node.
• On each node, the cluster operation mode must be configured to use the IGMP multicast protocol. Do this in the Cluster Parameters tab of the Network Load Balancing Manager.

  

  Network Load Balancing Properties dialog: Cluster Parameters tab

• When defining the port rules on each node, the filtering mode must be set to ‘Multiple host’ and, crucially, the Affinity setting must be set to ‘Single’. Set these options in the Add/Edit Port Rule dialog of the Network Load Balancing Manager. For details about assigning ports, see the next section.

  

  Add/Edit Port Properties dialog:

  Port range: These must both be set to 80.

  Affinity: This must be set to Single. See the Important below.

  Load weight: Defaults to 50 (ideally suits a two-machine cluster).

  Important! The Single Affinity setting is essential. It ensures that iConsole users cannot be switched to an alternative node midway through a session. This configuration is also known as ‘sticky sessions’.

• On each node, configure a common encryption key for the ViewState encryption.

More information:

Port Rules

ViewState Encryption