NIC Load Balancing

Hi,

I've been asked by my boss to setup load balancing for our server, which has
2 internal NICs. We're using Win2000 server, is this possible? I didn't
think standard server had any native NIC load balancing software, and that
any load balancing was only available on advanced server.
However I just want to check before I tell my boss this! If it is possible
do you have any kb articles explaining how to do it? I googled Microsoft,
however the pages it came back with seem to be about network load balancing
between 2 servers.

Cheers

--
Ben

IT Professional, MCP 70-210
"On my way to becoming fully certifiable!"

Window's "Network Load Balancing" is for clustering multiple servers with
single nics. It is not for clutering multiple nics in one server.

Clustering nics is often called "teaming" and requres nics that are
specially design just for this purpose ($$$$) that come with thier own
software to perform this.

Then you have the issue with what they connect *to*. Switches do "packet
switching" based on MAC address and will only send the packet down the *one*
wire that the switch has determined belongs to the server's MAC address.
Since you have two nics that means you have to MACs so the Switch is going
to treat it as two different machines even if it is that same machine and is
only going to use one port.

Hubs won't help either. Hubs don't do "packet switching" and would use
either wire, however Hubs "share" their bandwidth across all ports so if it
is a 100mps Hub then 100mps is all you could ever get no matter what.

I imagine the hardware manufacturers have come up with way to deal with all
this, but if you don't buy all the hardware that would be effected by this
and don't buy what is designed to work together properly, then you will just
spend a ton of money and never really gain anything at all.

--

Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com

"Ben" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> I've been asked by my boss to setup load balancing for our server, which
has
> 2 internal NICs. We're using Win2000 server, is this possible? I didn't
> think standard server had any native NIC load balancing software, and that
> any load balancing was only available on advanced server.
> However I just want to check before I tell my boss this! If it is possible
> do you have any kb articles explaining how to do it? I googled Microsoft,
> however the pages it came back with seem to be about network load
balancing
> between 2 servers.
>
> Cheers
>
> --
> Ben
>
> IT Professional, MCP 70-210
> "On my way to becoming fully certifiable!"
>
>

Hi Ben,

it really depends a lot on what you want to do. What is the bottleneck here?
Network?

One thing you can do is use DNS round robin. Give one NIC one IP and give
second NIC second IP. Add 2 host entries in DNS (same name but different
IPs).

When clients query DNS for IP 50% of clients should receive first IP and
other 50% of clients should receive the second IP.

Anything else depends on what you really want to do, but you are probably
right, you will need Enterprise Server?

Mike

"Ben" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> I've been asked by my boss to setup load balancing for our server, which
has
> 2 internal NICs. We're using Win2000 server, is this possible? I didn't
> think standard server had any native NIC load balancing software, and that
> any load balancing was only available on advanced server.
> However I just want to check before I tell my boss this! If it is possible
> do you have any kb articles explaining how to do it? I googled Microsoft,
> however the pages it came back with seem to be about network load
balancing
> between 2 servers.
>
> Cheers
>
> --
> Ben
>
> IT Professional, MCP 70-210
> "On my way to becoming fully certifiable!"
>
>

You are right, that is why I asked what you are trying to do -- what is the
goal. You can have teaming again in case one card fails the other takes over
or you can have 200Mbps connection instead of 100Mbps ... etc...
You are also right about additional hardware (switches) that support
teaming...

Mike

"Ole Kristian Bangås" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newspsb9i3xsi2qlbo6@wks...
> On Thu, 5 Aug 2004 15:47:13 +0200, Miha Pihler <mihap-(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
> > One thing you can do is use DNS round robin. Give one NIC one IP and
give
> > second NIC second IP. Add 2 host entries in DNS (same name but different
> > IPs).
> >
> > When clients query DNS for IP 50% of clients should receive first IP and
> > other 50% of clients should receive the second IP.
>
> This can do, but as far as I remember, this will have a serious drawback
> in case one of the NICs (or the cable) fails. Then approximately 50% of
> your
> users will be unable to connect to the server. If I've understood teaming
> right, this will not be an issue if you are teaming the NICs instead. This
> of course requires hardware (NICs and Switches) that are capable of
> teaming.
>
> --
> Ole Kristian Bangås
> http://www.bangaas.com/

On Thu, 5 Aug 2004 15:47:13 +0200, Miha Pihler <mihap-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> One thing you can do is use DNS round robin. Give one NIC one IP and give
> second NIC second IP. Add 2 host entries in DNS (same name but different
> IPs).
>
> When clients query DNS for IP 50% of clients should receive first IP and
> other 50% of clients should receive the second IP.

This can do, but as far as I remember, this will have a serious drawback
in case one of the NICs (or the cable) fails. Then approximately 50% of
your
users will be unable to connect to the server. If I've understood teaming
right, this will not be an issue if you are teaming the NICs instead. This
of course requires hardware (NICs and Switches) that are capable of
teaming.

--
Ole Kristian Bangås
http://www.bangaas.com/

"Miha Pihler" <mihap-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> You are right, that is why I asked what you are trying to do -- what is
the
> goal. You can have teaming again in case one card fails the other takes
over
> or you can have 200Mbps connection instead of 100Mbps ... etc...
> You are also right about additional hardware (switches) that support
> teaming...
>
> Mike
>

Its mainly because our users have a lot of large files, mainly graphics, but
also large powerpoint presentations. I wouldn't say we have a massive bottle
neck yet, however as more and more users create bigger files its going to
become more of an issue.

The only other idea was to create a DFS, which has folder replication. Then
we can have 2 servers serving the files through a DFS root?

Cheers

Ben

What are the main reasons to have two NICs in a server??
>-----Original Message-----
>Hi Ben,
>
>it really depends a lot on what you want to do. What is
the bottleneck here?
>Network?
>
>One thing you can do is use DNS round robin. Give one NIC
one IP and give
>second NIC second IP. Add 2 host entries in DNS (same
name but different
>IPs).
>
>When clients query DNS for IP 50% of clients should
receive first IP and
>other 50% of clients should receive the second IP.
>
>Anything else depends on what you really want to do, but
you are probably
>right, you will need Enterprise Server?
>
>Mike
>
>"Ben" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've been asked by my boss to setup load balancing for
our server, which
>has
>> 2 internal NICs. We're using Win2000 server, is this
possible? I didn't
>> think standard server had any native NIC load balancing
software, and that
>> any load balancing was only available on advanced
server.
>> However I just want to check before I tell my boss
this! If it is possible
>> do you have any kb articles explaining how to do it? I
googled Microsoft,
>> however the pages it came back with seem to be about
network load
>balancing
>> between 2 servers.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> --
>> Ben
>>
>> IT Professional, MCP 70-210
>> "On my way to becoming fully certifiable!"
>>
>>
>
>
>.
>

"Joe" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:0baf01c47b1c$1845e0f0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> What are the main reasons to have two NICs in a server??

1. to create a NAT Server

2. to create a Proxy Server

3. to create a LAN Router

4. to create a VPN Router

In either case, each NIC is in a different subnet and the machine has only
*one* Default Gateway.

--

Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com