Example: Implementing the Target Cluster

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

Contoso Pharmaceuticals is consolidating existing IIS Web farms onto a new IIS 6.0 Web farm. There are four independent IIS Web farms that need to be migrated. Two of the Web farms are running IIS 4.0 and WLBS on Windows NT 4.0. The other two Web farms are running IIS 5.0 and Network Load Balancing on Windows 2000.

During the migration, Contoso plans to consolidate the separate Web farms into one Web farm that supports all of their Web applications. Figure 9.12 illustrates Contoso’s network environment prior to the migration of the existing WLBS and Network Load Balancing clusters that host the IIS Web farms.

Figure 9.12   Network Environment Before Migrating the IIS Web Farms

As the first step in Contoso’s migration of the Web application server farm, Contoso restructured the network infrastructure to support the new IIS and Network Load Balancing deployment. Additional networking services were deployed in preparation for the implementation.

Then Contoso installed and configured the first server in the Web farm as a model for the remaining servers. Contoso deployed the remaining servers by using an image-based deployment method. Figure 9.13 illustrates Contoso’s network environment after the implementation of the target IIS 6.0 Web farm (Network Load Balancing cluster).

Figure 9.13   Network Environment After Installing the Target Cluster

During the implementation of the new target cluster, the existing clusters were not affected. Clients continued to access the applications and services running on the existing cluster during the implementation of the target cluster.