Enable Client Access to the Cluster

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Your last step in the implementation of your new cluster is to allow clients access to the applications and services running on the cluster. Be sure that you successfully complete all previous steps in the process before enabling users to access the cluster in a pilot or production environment.

Enable client access to the applications and the services in the cluster by creating DNS entries. Users will access your applications and services by using user-friendly names or Uniform Resource Locaters (URLs), such as https://www.microsoft.com, which correspond to the individual applications or services on the Network Load Balancing cluster. The DNS entries allow the translation of the user-friendly name to at least one IP address. When round robin DNS is used for load balancing between clusters, you must create a DNS entry for each cluster.

Table 9.5 lists the criteria for determining the number of DNS entries required for your new cluster.

Table 9.5   Criteria for Determining the DNS Entries for Your Cluster

Solution Includes One of the Following Required DNS Entries

Only one Network Load Balancing cluster.

A DNS entry for the cluster and a DNS entry for each virtual cluster.

More than one Network Load Balancing cluster with client traffic distributed across Network Load Balancing clusters by using round robin DNS.

A round robin DNS entry for each cluster and a round robin DNS entry for each virtual cluster.