This quick start example shows how to configure three locally
attached workstations to load-balance Web traffic between two Web
servers.
Before you begin
For the quick start example, you need three workstations and
four IP addresses. One workstation is the Dispatcher machine; the
other two workstations are the Web servers. Each Web server requires
one IP address. The Dispatcher workstation requires two addresses:
the non-forwarding address (NFA), and the cluster address (the address
which is load balanced) that you provide to clients to access your
Web site.
Note: The NFA is the address that is returned by the hostname
command. This address is used for administrative purposes.

For more information on the different ways Load Balancer
can be setup, read Types of cluster, port, and server configurations to help you
design your topology.
About this task
Use this configuration method for a quick way to establish
a connection between servers and the dispatcher machine. This method
does not include configuring advisors or tuning performance. For a
full configuration, read
Configuring the Load Balancer machine and
Configuring the server machines.
Procedure
- Prepare your servers.
- For this locally attached configuration example, set
up your workstations on the same LAN segment. Ensure that network
traffic between the three machines does not have to pass through any
routers or bridges.
- Configure the network adapters of the three workstations. For this example, we will assume you have the following network
configuration, and each of the workstations contains only one standard
Ethernet network interface card:
Table 1. Sample network configurationWorkstation |
Name |
IP Address |
1 |
server1.Intersplashx.com |
2002:92a:8f7a:162:9:42:92:160 |
2 |
server2.Intersplashx.com |
2002:92a:8f7a:162:9:42:92:161 |
3 |
server3.Intersplashx.com |
9.47.47.103 |
Netmask = 255.255.255.0 |
- 3. Ensure that all the servers can communicate with
each other.
- Ensure that server1.Intersplashx.com can ping both server2.Intersplashx.com
and server3.Intersplashx.com.
- Ensure that server2.Intersplashx.com and server3.Intersplashx.com
can ping server1.Intersplashx.com.
- Ensure that content is identical on the two Web servers
(Server 2 and Server 3). This can be done by replicating
data on both workstations, by using a shared file system such as NFS,
AFS®, or DFS™, or by any other means appropriate for your site.
- Ensure that Web servers on server2.Intersplashx.com
and server3.Intersplashx.com are operational. Use a Web
browser to request pages directly from http://server2.Intersplashx.com
and http://server3.Intersplashx.com.
- Obtain another valid IP address for this LAN segment.
This is the address you will provide to clients who wish to access
your site. For this example we will use:
Name= www.Intersplashx.com
IP=9.47.47.104
- Configure the two Web server workstations to accept
traffic for www.Intersplashx.com. Add an alias for www.Intersplashx.com
to the loopback interface on server2.Intersplashx.com and server3.Intersplashx.com:
- Delete any extra route that may have been created as
a result of aliasing the loopback interface. See Step 2 in
Configuring the server machines.
- Configure Load Balancer using the command line, the GUI,
or the configuration wizard.
- Test your configuration.
- From a Web browser, go to location http://www.Intersplashx.com.
If a page is displayed, the configuration is working.
- Reload the page in the Web browser.
- Look at the results of the following command:
dscontrol server report www.Intersplashx.com@80@
The
total connections column of the two servers should add up to “2.”