Network Load Balancing

[[BB] Rick James]

I'm looking at setting up a second server in my network that will help handle the internet load. Right now I have a Win2k3 server sharing internet and I'd like another one that will help out once the load hits a certain network %. What's the best way to go about this?

 

[Darthkim]

I'm confused as to how you are able to generate so much traffic, that your win2k3 server is struggling with the NATing. How many clients are we talking about?

If you want to stick with win2k3, there isn't a simple way to do it (at least not with the built-in NLB).

If your network is segmened with different subnets, you could define the gateway of the other network to point to the 2nd box.

If you just need simple NATing, i'd suggest getting a cheap box running ipcop or astaro or untangle or a dedicated router..

 

[StarTrek4U]

I agree, dollars to donuts that you're not even above a 15-20% average usage on your network and your spikes probably don't reach 50%. Especially with a home ISP your LAN connection is so much quicker than your WAN connection load balancing will probably cause more problems than it solves. Now you may be experiencing slowness b/c of old hardware on your Win box, if that's the case either a dedicated router (ie Linksys, etc) or some *nix variant would probably alleviate that problem.

 

[Ockie]

Unless if you are running a serious connection capped out (not to mention the fact that if you had a serious connection you would have a much better setup rather than 2k3) you won't need two load balanced machines.

 

[[BB] Rick James]

Unless if you are running a serious connection capped out (not to mention the fact that if you had a serious connection you would have a much better setup rather than 2k3) you won't need two load balanced machines.

Well the fiber connection I'm on is 1gigabyte, but users are capped at 6MBps. I have one user at 21MBps but that is an exception.