I currently have 4 Windows dualxeon servers; and I am thinking about load balancing them....

I know that there is a private network between the servers, and my thoughts were to use that to tie them together.

I want to configure Windows Load Balancing Service in Windows Server 2003. One of my servers will be the controller, and each other server will be the content.

Any pro's or con's to doing this? I've also heard I can get a rack with the servers all together - but that will be an extra cost...

Thanks,
Joe

Now first off I am not a windows guy so I am not going to say if that load balancing solution will work, we generally suggest going with a serveriron load balancer on a private rack.

One big thing that you need to think about is the bandwidth used by the servers. I do not know how the windows cluster runs but remember you are going to be charged for all bandwidth used between the servers. If you have the one main server sending requests to the other 3-4 then you are going to be billed a few times for each clients access of a single page.

If on the other hand you go with a rack it is free, you can also get a seperate backend switch, and you can pool the bandwidth of all the servers.

Another thing to keep in mind is that PNET is currently 10mbps. On a private rack, the servers will be able to talk to each other at 100mbps or even gigabit speeds, depending on how you order your rack.

Hi,

Load balancig the windows servers is absolutely possible using the built in micrososift LB services. This makes use of both the private net as well as public net for the balacing. The server communicatons are sent on the p-net while the public communications are over the public net. I can assist you in setting up the LB on your windows servers. Message me if you need assistance on the matter.

Regards,
Renegade

Thanks for your offer; we are currently trying to balance our bandwidth usage.. as we are quickly exceeding the 2gb/month before the month is up... we've just moved to 5 dual-xeon servers running Windows... and I decided to move one of the servers to the 10mbps unmetered connection. But now that I've moved it to the unmetered connection I'm seeing major speed delays (and no one is hitting the server yet!!). We're working out the bugs, hopefully this is a bug - not the normal way the 10mbps unmetered works...

I think we may have to move towards a rack solution here... If I need assistance with the load balancing I'll let ya know

If you are going with multiple servers *soley* for the bandwidth email custom orders about their bandwidth offerings. They can get you an unmetered 100Mbps line (or more) for the entire rack which will solve your problem

We are upgrading one of our servers to the 10mbps unmetered service - BUT since its been in operation its VERY VERY SLOW.

Same hardware as the other services (Dual Xeon CPU, 2gb RAM, Windows Standard Server)...

On the 10mbps server, response times for just an GIF file is on average: 2,881ms speeds (and no traffic at all is routed here yet)..

On the regular metered servers (Dual Xeon CPU, 2gb RAM, Windows Standard) a simple GIF file loads on average in 172ms (and that is with a load of about 4,000 connections to the web service, and on average 50 connections per second)...

EV1 is looking into it. Going to a 10mbps link should not cause these types of delays, esp. since we haven't even started pushing traffic to the unmetered server yet!!

Wild...

The "unlimited" packages are on Cogent bandwidth, which is much much worse than the premium fiber that the metered servers are on. I've had a Cogent server with EV1, but we cancelled it because it was simply unbearable.

You can get custom sales to create you a 10mbit server not on Cogent. Be warned, bandwidth for it will cost upwards of 400$ a month for it.