FTP Cluster Deployments

  • Article

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

Depending on the environment in which the FTP servers reside, you can use either Server clusters or NLB clusters to provide highly available FTP servers. The following table compares Server clusters and NLB.

Server cluster NLB
  • Appropriate for FTP sites with high update rates, or in situations where you want to have a single copy of the FTP content.

  • Uses a shared disk; does not require replication.

  • Can be configured as active/passive only, which provides high availability but does not provide load balancing.
  • Appropriate for FTP sites that are mainly read-only and used mostly for downloading content.

  • Requires replication.

  • Single-affinity mode is strongly recommended.

  • Recommended for clustering FTP servers, instead of Server cluster.

For more information about the process of implementing FTP in a Server cluster, see Checklist: Creating a clustered IIS Web or FTP service in the Windows Server 2003 Operations Guide. For an example of an FTP cluster configuration, see Example: Controlling the Distribution of Client Traffic within the Cluster.