With NLB, you can balance Web, FTP, and Terminal Server traffic across many servers. In fact, you can balance the workload from two to 32 machines, depending on the version of Win2K Server you're running. I'm going to show you how to quickly configure and test NLB in Windows 2000. Author's note NLB is available only on Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and requires Service Pack 2. It also requires 1 MB of disk space for each cluster server. Configuring network load balancing When you install Win2K Advanced Server or Win2K Datacenter Server, NLB becomes available by default. To activate NLB, go to Network And Dial-up Connections, right-click on the interface you want to use for load balancing (usually one of the Local Area Connections), and select Properties.

Highlight the Network Load Balancing selection, as shown in Figure A. Then, click Properties to access the options for configuring Network Load Balancing, shown in Figure B.

Figure A

Figure B

As you can see, this dialog box offers the following three tabs:

• Cluster Parameters
• Host Parameters
• Port Rules

Let's take a detailed look at the configuration options available in each tab. Cluster Parameters To properly configure NLB, you must first select the Cluster Parameters tab and enter the following information:

Primary IP Address -- The Primary IP Address is the virtual IP address of the NLB configuration itself (as opposed to the interface IP address of one of the servers that makes up the NLB configuration). All machines that are load balanced will use this IP address.

Subnet Mask -- After entering the IP address, press [Tab]. This will be configured automatically.

Full Internet Name -- Enter the NLB's fully qualified domain name (FQDN). Remember to configure your DNS with this name and resolve it to the IP address before going live with your load-balancing machines.

Network Address -- This hardware (MAC) address is automatically configured and cannot be changed.

Multicast Support -- Check this box if you want to enable multicast support. If you are using a server with only one network card, this option is required.

Remote Password -- If you want to use remote administration, enter and confirm a remote password and select the Remote Control check box. With this feature enabled, you can, for example, start and stop the cluster services or display diagnostics from a remote machine.

Author's note When you enable the Remote Control check box, you are asked to consult online help because allowing this can be a huge security risk. You should have the proper firewall in place prior to allowing Remote Control.