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 for the Dispatcher; 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 that is load balanced) that you provide to clients to access your website.A simple local Dispatcher configuration

For more information about the different ways Load Balancer can be set up, read Types of cluster, port, and server configurations for Dispatcher 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 Dispatcher 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 pass through any routers or bridges.
    2. Configure the network adapters of the three workstations. For this example, it is assumed 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 9.67.67.101
      2 server2.Intersplashx.com 9.67.67.102
      3 server3.Intersplashx.com 9.67.67.103
      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 2 web servers (Server 2 and Server 3). You can complete this step by replicating data on both workstations, 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 IP address is the address that you provide to clients who want to access your site. For example:
      Name= www.Intersplashx.com 
      IP=9.67.67.104
    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 was created as a result of aliasing the loopback interface. See Step 2 in Configuring the server machines.
  2. Configure Load Balancer with the command line or the GUI.
    • 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 by entering the following 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 now load balances based on server performance.
      7. Start the advisor function of Dispatcher:
        dscontrol advisor start http 80
        Dispatcher now makes sure that client requests are not sent to a failed web server.
    • Configuring with the GUI:
      • [AIX][Linux][HP-UX][Solaris]At a command prompt, enter the following command:
        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 www.Intersplashx.com. If a page displays, 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 2 servers should add up to 2.


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Timestamp icon Last updated: March 23, 2018 0:18
File name: tcfg_quickstrt.html