Configuring Nortel Alteon Controller

Before following the steps in this chapter, see Planning for Nortel Alteon Controller. This chapter explains how to create a basic configuration for the Nortel Alteon Controller component of Load Balancer.

Overview of configuration tasks

Before you begin any of the configuration methods in this chapter, ensure that your Nortel Alteon Web Switch and all server machines are properly configured.

Table 9. Configuration tasks for the Nortel Alteon Controller component
Task Description Related information
Configure the Nortel Alteon Web Switch and the servers Configuring the switch. Configure the switch, on page ***
Set up the Nortel Alteon Controller machine Configuring the controller. Step 1. Start the server function
Test your configuration Confirm that the configuration is working Testing your configuration

Methods of configuration

To create a basic configuration for the Nortel Alteon Controller component of Load Balancer, there are three methods:

Command line

This is the most direct means of configuring Nortel Alteon Controller. The procedures in this manual assume use of the command line.

To start Nortel Alteon Controller from the command line:

  1. Issue the nalserver command from the command prompt. To stop the service, type: nalserver stop
    Notes:
    1. For Windows systems, click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Right-click IBM® Nortel Alteon Controller and select Start. To stop the service, follow the same steps and select Stop.
    2. For Windows systems, you can start the nalserver automatically during boot:
      1. Click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
      2. Right-click IBM Nortel Alteon Controller, then select Properties.
      3. Click the arrow for the Startup type field, then select Automatic.
      4. Click OK.
  2. Next, issue the Nortel Alteon Controller control commands you want to set up your configuration. The procedures in this manual assume use of the command line. The command is nalcontrol. For more information about commands, see Command reference for Nortel Alteon Controller.

You can use an abbreviated version of the nalcontrol command parameters by typing the unique letters of the parameters. For example, to get help on the file save command, you can type nalcontrol he f instead of nalcontrol help file.

To end the command line interface: type exit or quit.

Notes:
  1. You must use English characters for all command parameter values. The only exceptions are host names (used in server commands) and file names (used in file commands).
  2. On Windows systems, the Dispatcher component's dsserver starts automatically. If you are using only Nortel Alteon Controller and not the Dispatcher component, you can prevent ndserver from starting automatically as follows:
    1. In Windows Services, right-click IBM Dispatcher.
    2. Select Properties.
    3. In the Startup type field, select Manual.
    4. Click OK, and close the Services window.

XML

The currently-defined configuration can be saved to an XML file. This enables the configuration to be loaded at a later time when you want to quickly recreate the configuration.

To run the content of an XML file (for example, myscript.xml), use the following commands:

The XML files are saved in the following directory:

GUI

For an example of the graphical user interface (GUI), see Figure 38.

To start the GUI:

  1. If nalserver is not already running, start it now by typing nalserver as root.
  2. Next, do one of the following:

To configure the Nortel Alteon Controller component from the GUI:

  1. Right-click Nortel Alteon Controller in the tree structure.
  2. Connect to a Host.
  3. Create one or more switch consultants containing the desired services and their associated metrics.
  4. Start the consultant.

You can use the GUI to do anything that you would do with the nalcontrol command. For example:

To run a command from the GUI:

  1. Right-click the Host node and select Send command....
  2. In the Command entry field, type the command that you want to run; for example, consultant report.
  3. Click Send.

The results and history of the commands that you run in the current session appear in the Result box.

To access Help, click the question mark icon in the upper right corner of the Load Balancer window.

For more information about using the GUI, see Appendix A. GUI: General instructions.

Setting up Nortel Alteon Controller

For help with commands used in this procedure, see Command reference for Nortel Alteon Controller.

Before setting up the Nortel Alteon Controller machine:

Step 1. Start the server function

If the nalserver is not already running, type nalserver as root to start it now.

Note:
For Windows systems, click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Right-click IBM Nortel Alteon Controller and select Start.

Step 2. Start the command line interface

Type nalcontrol to start the command line interface.

Step 3. Define a Nortel Alteon Web Switch consultant

To add a switch consultant, type:

consultant add switchconsultantID address switchIPAddress

Step 4. Add a service to the switch consultant

To add a service, type:

service add switchConsultantID:serviceID vsid virtualServerID vport 
virtualPortNumber

A service is identified by a virtual server identifier (VSID) and a virtual port (VPORT) number, both of which are associated with a virtual server previously configured on the switch.

Step 5. Configure metrics

Metrics is the information used to determine the server weights. Each metric is assigned a proportion to indicate its importance relative to other metrics. Any combination of metrics can be configured: connection data metrics, application advisor metrics, and metric server metrics. The proportions must always total 100.

When a service is configured, the default metrics are defined as activeconn and connrate. If you want additional metrics, or if you want metrics that are altogether different from the defaults, type:

service metrics switchConsultantID:serviceID metricName 50 
metricName2 50

Step 6. Start the consultant

To start the consultant, type:

consultant start switchConsultantID

This starts the metric collectors, and weight calculation begins.

Step 7. Configure high availability (optional)

To configure high availability, type:

highavailability add address IPaddress partneraddress IPaddress port 80 
role primary

SeeAdvanced features for Cisco CSS Controller and Nortel Alteon Controller for detailed information on how to use and configure controller high availability.

Step 8. Start the Metric Server (optional)

If system metrics are defined in Step 5, the metric server must be started on the service machines. See Metric Server for information on using the metric server.

Step 9. Refreshing the Nortel Alteon Controller configuration

If you modify the configuration on the Nortel Alteon Web Switch, you can refresh the controller configuration. Type:

service refresh

Before you do a refresh of the configuration, stop the consultant. After the refresh command updates the configuration, restart the consultant.

Testing your configuration

Test to see if the configuration is working:

  1. Set the consultant loglevel to 4.
  2. Disconnect a server from the Nortel Alteon Web Switch for one minute, or shut down the application server for one minute.
  3. Reconnect the server, or restart the application server.
  4. Set the consultant loglevel back to the desired level (1).
  5. View the consultant.log file located in the following directories, and look for setServerWeights setting service. This means that an attempt has been made to send weights to the switch.
  6. Display server weights on the switch and verify that these weights match the weights shown on the controller report.