Configuring Nortel Alteon Controller
Before following the steps in this chapter, see Planning for Nortel Alteon Controller.
This chapter explains how to create a basic configuration for the Nortel Alteon Controller component
of Load Balancer.
Overview of configuration tasks
Before you begin any of the configuration methods in this chapter, ensure
that your Nortel Alteon Web Switch and all server machines are properly configured.
Methods of configuration
To create a basic configuration for the Nortel Alteon Controller component of Load Balancer,
there are three methods:
- Command line
- XML file
- Graphical user interface (GUI)
Command line
This is the most direct means of configuring Nortel Alteon Controller. The procedures
in this manual assume use of the command line.
To start Nortel Alteon Controller from the command line:
- Issue the nalserver command from the command prompt.
To stop the service, type: nalserver stop
Notes:
- For Windows systems, click Start > Settings (for Windows 2000) > Control
Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Right-click IBM® Nortel Alteon Controller and select Start. To stop the service,
follow the same steps and select Stop.
- For Windows systems, you can start the nalserver automatically
during boot:
- Click Start > Settings (for Windows 2000) > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
- Right-click IBM Nortel Alteon Controller, then select Properties.
- Click the arrow for the Startup type field, then select Automatic.
- Click OK.
- Next, issue the Nortel Alteon Controller control commands you want
to set up your configuration. The procedures in this manual assume use of
the command line. The command is nalcontrol. For more
information about commands, see Command reference for Nortel Alteon Controller.
You can use an abbreviated version of the nalcontrol command parameters
by typing the unique letters of the parameters. For example, to get help on
the file save command, you can type nalcontrol he f instead
of nalcontrol help file.
To end the command line interface: type exit or quit.
Notes:
- You must use English characters for all command parameter values. The
only exceptions are host names (used in server commands) and file names (used
in file commands).
- On Windows systems, the Dispatcher component's dsserver
starts automatically. If you are using only Nortel Alteon Controller and not the
Dispatcher component, you can prevent ndserver from starting automatically
as follows:
- In Windows Services, right-click IBM Dispatcher.
- Select Properties.
- In the Startup type field, select Manual.
- Click OK, and close the Services window.
XML
The currently-defined configuration can be saved to an XML file.
This enables the configuration to be loaded at a later time when you want
to quickly recreate the configuration.
To run the content of an XML file (for example, myscript.xml), use the following commands:
- To save the current configuration into an XML file, issue the
following command:
nalcontrol file save XMLFilename
Use the load command only if you have previously
done a file save.
- To load a saved configuration, issue the following command:
nalcontrol file load XMLFileName
Use
the load command only if you have previously done a file
save.
The XML files are saved in the ...ibm/edge/lb/servers/configurations/nal/ directory.
GUI
For an example of the graphical user interface (GUI), see Figure 38.
To start the GUI:
- If nalserver is not already running, start it now by typing nalserver as root.
- Next, do one of the following:
- For AIX®, HP-UX, Linux , or Solaris systems: type lbadmin
- For Windows systems: click Start > Programs > IBM WebSphere® > Edge Components > IBM Load Balancer > Load Balancer
To configure the Nortel Alteon Controller component from the GUI:
- Right-click Nortel Alteon Controller in the tree structure.
- Connect to a Host.
- Create one or more switch consultants containing the desired
services and their associated metrics.
- Start the consultant.
You can use the GUI to do anything that you would do with the nalcontrol command. For example:
- To define a reach target using the command line, type nalcontrol highavailability usereach address.
To define a reach target from the GUI, right-click High Availability > Add
Reach Target.... Type the reach address in the pop-up window, then click OK.
- Use Load Configuration presented in the
Host pop-up menu to append the configuration stored in a file to the running
configuration. If you want to load a new configuration,
you must stop and restart the server before you load the file.
- Right-click the Host node, then select Save Configuration
File As to periodically save your Nortel Alteon Controller configuration to
a file.
- Select File from the menu bar to save your current
host connections to a file or to restore connections in existing files across
all Load Balancer components.
To run a command from the GUI:
- Right-click the Host node and select Send command....
- In the Command entry field, type the command that you want to run; for
example, consultant report.
- Click Send.
The results and history of the commands that you run in the current session
appear in the Result box.
To access Help, click the question mark icon in the upper right corner
of the Load Balancer window.
- Help: Field level -- describes each
field, default values
- Help: How do I -- lists tasks that
can be done from that screen
- InfoCenter -- provides centralized
access to product information
For more information about using the GUI, see Appendix A. GUI: General instructions.
Setting up Nortel Alteon Controller
For help with commands used in this procedure, see Command reference for Nortel Alteon Controller.
Before setting up the Nortel Alteon Controller machine:
- You must be the root user (on AIX, HP-UX, Linux , and Solaris systems) or the Administrator
(on Windows systems).
- Nortel Alteon Controller must have IP connectivity to a Nortel Alteon Web Switch and
to all servers for which weights are calculated.
- The Nortel Alteon Web Switch must be configured as follows:
- Enable layer 4 server load balancing on the switch.
- Configure an IP interface.
- Enable SNMP.
- Enable server load-balancing client processing on the port that
receives client requests.
- Enable server load-balancing server processing on the port that
the real servers are connected through.
- Configure real servers for the Web server machines.
- Configure a real server group consisting of the real servers
that are running the application server.
- Configure a virtual server.
- Configure a service on a virtual port and assign the real server group
to service it.
Step 1. Start the server function
If the nalserver is not already running, type nalserver as root to start it now.
Note:
For Windows systems, click Start > Settings (for Windows 2000) > Control
Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Right-click IBM Nortel Alteon Controller and select Start.
Step 2. Start the command line interface
Type nalcontrol to start the command line interface.
Step 3. Define a Nortel Alteon Web Switch consultant
To add a switch consultant, type:
consultant add switchconsultantID address switchIPAddress
Step 4. Add a service to the switch consultant
To add a service, type:
service add switchConsultantID:serviceID vsid virtualServerID vport
virtualPortNumber
A service is identified by a virtual server identifier (VSID)
and a virtual port (VPORT) number, both of which are associated with a virtual
server previously configured on the switch.
Step 5. Configure metrics
Metrics is the information used to determine the server weights.
Each metric is assigned a proportion to indicate its importance relative to
other metrics. Any combination of metrics can be configured: connection data
metrics, application advisor metrics, and metric server metrics. The proportions
must always total 100.
When a service is configured, the default metrics are defined as activeconn and connrate. If you want additional
metrics, or if you want metrics that are altogether different from the defaults,
type:
service metrics switchConsultantID:serviceID metricName 50
metricName2 50
Step 6. Start the consultant
To start the consultant, type:
consultant start switchConsultantID
This starts the metric collectors, and weight calculation begins.
Step 7. Configure high availability (optional)
To configure high availability, type:
highavailability add address IPaddress partneraddress IPaddress port 80
role primary
SeeAdvanced features for Cisco CSS Controller and Nortel Alteon Controller for detailed information on how to use
and configure controller high availability.
Step 8. Start the Metric Server (optional)
If system metrics are defined in Step 5, the metric server must
be started on the service machines. See Metric Server for information
on using the metric server.
Step 9. Refreshing the Nortel Alteon Controller configuration
If you modify the configuration on the Nortel Alteon Web Switch, you can refresh the
controller configuration. Type:
service refresh
Before you do a refresh of the configuration, stop the consultant.
After the refresh command updates the configuration, restart the consultant.
Testing your configuration
Test to see if the configuration is working:
- Set the consultant loglevel to 4.
- Disconnect a server from the Nortel Alteon Web Switch for one minute, or shut down the
application server for one minute.
- Reconnect the server, or restart the application server.
- Set the consultant loglevel back to the desired level (1).
- View the consultant.log file located in the following directories,
and look for setServerWeights setting service. This
means that an attempt has been made to send weights to the switch.
- For AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Solaris systems: ...ibm/edge/lb/servers/logs/cco/consultantName
- For Windows systems: ...ibm\edge\lb\servers\logs\cco\consultantName
- Display server weights on the switch and verify that these weights
match the weights shown on the controller report.