Quick start configuration

This quick start example shows how to create a configuration using the Nortel Alteon Controller component. Nortel Alteon Controller provides server weights to the Nortel Alteon Web Switch. These weights are used to select servers for services that the switch is load balancing.

Figure 25. A simple Nortel Alteon Controller configuration
A graphic showing a Client, Internet cloud, a Nortel Alteon Controller machine, Nortel Alteon Web Switch, and server machines.

What do you need?

For this quick start configuration example, you will need the following:

How do you prepare?

Ensure the following steps are complete before beginning configuration for this example:

Configuring the Nortel Alteon Controller component

With Nortel Alteon Controller, you can create a configuration by using the command line or the graphical user interface (GUI). For this quick start example, configuration steps are demonstrated using the command line.

Note:
The parameter values must be typed in English characters. The only exceptions are parameter values for host names and file names.

Configuring with the command line

From a command prompt, follow these steps:

  1. Start the nalserver on Nortel Alteon Controller. As root user or administrator, issue the following from a command prompt: nalserver
  2. Add a consultant to the Nortel Alteon Controller configuration, specifying the Nortel Alteon Web Switch IP interface address. (Only specify the read community and write community if it is different from the default (public, private):

    nalcontrol consultant add Consultant-1 address 9.87.32.50

    This will check connectivity to Nortel Alteon Web Switch and will verify that the SNMP community names are working properly.

  3. Add a service (Service-1) to the consultant (Consultant-1), specifying the virtual server identifier (1) and virtual port number (80) for the service:

    nalcontrol service add Consultant-1:Service-1 vsid 1 vport 80

    Nortel Alteon Controller will communicate with the switch over SNMP and will obtain the necessary configuration information from the switch. After this step, you should see information in the Nortel Alteon Controller about what servers are configured on Nortel Alteon Web Switch for the service.

  4. Configure the metrics to be collected for the set of servers associated with the service:

    nalcontrol service metrics Consultant-1:Service-1 http 40 activeconn 30 connrate 30

    This command will configure which metric information you want to collect from the servers and the relative importance of those metrics during weight calculation.

  5. Start the consultant function of Nortel Alteon Controller:

    nalcontrol consultant start Consultant-1

    With this command, all the metric collectors will start, and server weight calculations will begin. Nortel Alteon Controller communicates the results of its server weight calculations to Nortel Alteon Web Switch using SNMP.

Your basic Nortel Alteon Controller configuration is now complete.

Testing your configuration

Test to see if the configuration is working:

  1. From the Client 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: nalcontrol service report Consultant-1:Service-1. The total connections column of the two Web servers should add up to "2."

Configuring with the graphical user interface (GUI)

For information on using the Nortel Alteon Controller GUI, see GUI and Appendix A. GUI: General instructions.