Quick start configuration

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.
A simple local Dispatcher configuration

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

  1. Prepare your servers.
    1. 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.
    2. 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 configuration
      Workstation 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. 3. Ensure that all the servers can communicate with each other.
      1. Ensure that server1.Intersplashx.com can ping both server2.Intersplashx.com and server3.Intersplashx.com.
      2. Ensure that server2.Intersplashx.com and server3.Intersplashx.com can ping server1.Intersplashx.com.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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
    7. 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:
    8. 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.

  2. Configure Load Balancer using the command line, the GUI, or the configuration wizard.
    • Configuring with the command line:
      1. Start the dsserver on Dispatcher:
        • [AIX][HP-UX][Linux][Solaris] Run the following command as root user:
          dsserver
        • [Windows] dsserver runs as a service that starts automatically
      2. Start the executor function of Dispatcher. Enter the command
        dscontrol executor start
      3. Add the cluster address to the Dispatcher configuration:
        dscontrol cluster add www.Intersplashx.com
      4. Add the HTTP protocol port to the Dispatcher configuration:
        dscontrol port add www.Intersplashx.com@80
      5. Add each of the Web servers to the Dispatcher configuration:
        dscontrol server add www.Intersplashx.com@80@server2.Intersplashx.com
        dscontrol server add www.Intersplashx.com@80@server3.Intersplashx.com
      6. Start the manager function of Dispatcher:
        dscontrol manager start 
        Dispatcher will now do load balancing based on server performance.
      7. Start the advisor function of Dispatcher:
        dscontrol advisor start http 80
        Dispatcher will now make sure that client requests are not sent to a failed Web server.
    • Configuring with the configuration wizard:
      1. Start the dsserver on Dispatcher:
        • [AIX][HP-UX][Linux][Solaris] Run the following command as root user: dsserver
        • [Windows] dsserver runs as a service that starts automatically
      2. Start the wizard function of Dispatcher:
        dswizard
        The wizard guides you step-by-step through the process of creating a basic configuration for the Dispatcher component. It asks questions about your network and guides you through the setup of a cluster for Dispatcher to load balance the traffic for a group of servers. The configuration wizard contains the following panels:
        • Introduction to the wizard
        • What is going to happen
        • Preparing for the setup
        • Defining a cluster
        • Adding a port
        • Adding a server
        • Starting an advisor
        • Server machine setup
    • Configuring with the GUI:
      • [AIX][Linux][HP-UX][Solaris] At a command prompt, enter the following:
        lbadmin
      • [Windows] Click Start > Programs > IBM WebSphere > Edge Components > IBM Load Balancer > Load Balancer.
  3. Test your configuration.
    1. From a Web browser, go to location http://www.Intersplashx.com. If a page is displayed, the configuration is working.
    2. Reload the page in the Web browser.
    3. 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.”

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Last updated: September 10, 2012 09:00 AM EDT
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