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 is the Dispatcher machine; 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 which is load balanced) that you provide
to clients to access your Web site.
Note: The NFA is the address that is returned
by the hostname command. This address is used for administrative purposes.

For more information on the different ways Load Balancer can be
setup, read Types of cluster, port, and server configurations 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 Load Balancer machine and
Configuring the server machines.
Procedure
- Prepare your servers.
- 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 have to pass through any routers or bridges.
- Configure the network adapters of the three workstations. For this example, we will assume you have the following network configuration,
and each of the workstations contains only one standard Ethernet network interface
card:
Table 1. Sample network configurationWorkstation |
Name |
IP Address |
1 |
server1.Intersplashx.com |
2002:92a:8f7a:162:9:42:92:160 |
2 |
server2.Intersplashx.com |
2002:92a:8f7a:162:9:42:92:161 |
3 |
server3.Intersplashx.com |
9.47.47.103 |
Netmask = 255.255.255.0 |
- 3. Ensure that all the servers can communicate with each other.
- Ensure that server1.Intersplashx.com can ping both server2.Intersplashx.com
and server3.Intersplashx.com.
- Ensure that server2.Intersplashx.com and server3.Intersplashx.com can
ping server1.Intersplashx.com.
- Ensure that content is identical on the two Web servers (Server
2 and Server 3). This can be done by replicating data on both workstations,
by using a shared file system such as NFS, AFS®, or DFS™, or by any other
means appropriate for your site.
- 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.
- Obtain another valid IP address for this LAN segment. This is
the address you will provide to clients who wish to access your site. For this example we will use:
Name= www.Intersplashx.com
IP=9.47.47.104
- 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:
- Delete any extra route that may have been created as a result
of aliasing the loopback interface. See Step
2 in Configuring the server machines.
- Configure Load Balancer using the command line, the GUI, or the
configuration wizard.
- Test your configuration.
- From a Web browser, go to location http://www.Intersplashx.com. If a page is displayed,
the configuration is working.
- Reload the page in the Web browser.
- Look at the results of the following command:
dscontrol server report www.Intersplashx.com@80@
The total connections column of the two servers should add up to “2.”