Network Load Balancing Technical Overview
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Summary
Network Load Balancing, a software clustering technology that is available in Microsoft Windows® 2000 or in Application Center 2000, enhances the scalability and availability of mission-critical and TCP/IP-based services—such as Web, Terminal Services, virtual private networking, and streaming media servers. This component runs within cluster hosts as part of the Windows 2000 operating system and requires no dedicated hardware support. To scale performance, Network Load Balancing distributes IP traffic across multiple cluster hosts. It also ensures high availability by detecting host failures and automatically redistributing traffic to the surviving hosts. Network Load Balancing provides remote controllability and supports rolling upgrades from the Windows NT® 4.0 operating system.
The unique and fully distributed architecture of Network Load Balancing enables it to deliver very high performance and failover protection, especially in comparison with dispatcher-based load balancers. This white paper describes the key features of this technology and explores its internal architecture and performance characteristics in detail.
Included in this document:
| • | Advantages of Network Load Balancing |
| • | Installing and Managing Network Load Balancing |
| • | How Network Load Balancing Works |
| • | Managing Application State |
| • | Network Load Balancing Architecture |
| • | Network Load Balancing Performance |
