Establish Communication in Non-NLB Clusters

The tasks associated with configuring network communication in non-NLB clusters vary depending on your clustering environment and load balancing implementation. The following procedure provides guidelines for typical network configuration of non-NLB clusters.

To establish communication in a non-NLB cluster

1. Assign a static, dedicated IP address to the load-balanced adapter for each cluster member.

2. Assign the cluster IP address, or VIP, to your load-balanced adapter.

   The management-traffic adapter can use DHCP or static IP addresses. The following illustration shows the recommended IP address configuration on both load-balanced and management-traffic adapters. 

3. Using Internet Services Manager, bind all IP addresses from other members to the corresponding Web sites on the controller.

   For example, if Web site A has an IP address of 1.1.1.1 on the controller but 1.1.1.2 on Member A, you must bind 1.1.1.2 to Web site A on the controller. Because Application Center synchronizes all content and configuration from the controller, member-specific settings (such as IP address bindings) will be overwritten on members. Therefore, make sure all settings exist on the controller before adding any members, or you can modify settings on the controller as you add members.

    Note   These additional IP address bindings will not degrade performance because IIS only detects IP addresses that are bound to network adapters.

4. Configure DNS and WINS on the management-traffic adapter.

   Confirm that DNS is functioning properly by ensuring that server names resolve to the management-traffic adapter rather than the load-balanced adapter. To use the Application Center name resolution service, NetBios over TCP/IP is enabled during cluster creation.

    Note   Application Center does not disable NetBios over TCP/IP if you disband the cluster or remove members.

5. Ensure that the load-balanced adapter is on a separate subnet from the management-traffic adapter and that all members can communicate with each other over the management-traffic adapter.

   If both of the network adapters exist on the same subnet, you can separate network traffic by using a default gateway.

Related Topics

• For more information about configuring network communication, see the Help for your load balancing device.

• For more information about binding additional IP addresses to Web sites in IIS, see Add and Remove IP Address Bindings.

• For more information about hosting multiple Web sites on non-NLB clusters, see Using Other Load Balancers.

• For more information about creating a cluster, see Cluster Creation Process.

Did you find this information useful? Please send your suggestions and comments about the documentation to acdocs@microsoft.com.