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• 10-13-2009, 2:50 AM

  xaronv Joined on 10-13-2009, 6:44 AM Posts 2

  WebFarm NLB Reply Contact Hi,  We want to install a webfarm with 2008 R2 NLB and IIS 7. We currently have two servers with 8go of ram each and 2 processors quadcore on each (ie : two octoprocessors servers). My question is : do I install nlb on each server and use them on a webFarm or do i install Hyperv on each of them and create a webfarm with four virtual servers (two on each physical servers) ?  thanks in advance  Vincent

  Tags: NLBwindows 2008HyperV

• 10-13-2009, 4:02 AM

  In reply to

  steve schofield Joined on 06-10-2002, 4:54 PM MI Posts 3,964

  Re: WebFarm NLB Reply Contact it's however you want to do it.  If you can use hyper-V, then install guest os's.  Whatever machines are going to participate in the webfarm need NLB.  The hosts in this case wouldn't need NLB since they would be host boxes for your guest OS's. Steve Schofield Windows Server MVP - IIS http://weblogs.asp.net/steveschofield http://www.IISLogs.com Log archival solution Install, Configure, Forget

• 10-13-2009, 4:16 AM

  In reply to

  xaronv Joined on 10-13-2009, 6:44 AM Posts 2	Re: WebFarm NLB Reply Contact I think i've explain myself wrong. My question is : what is better : use two physical servers in nlb or use Four virtual servers in nlb ? (for performance, availability ...).  Thanks Vincent

• 10-13-2009, 10:26 PM

  In reply to

  steve schofield Joined on 06-10-2002, 4:54 PM MI Posts 3,964

  Re: WebFarm NLB Reply Contact Depends (Yes that is there). :)   it really depends on the application, amount of traffic, is it database driven, any third party tools?  Is there a sql server involved?    A normal web server having 4 boxes is great for performance, redundancy, change management since you'd have multiple servers.  If you take down a host, you still have 2 VM's running keeping your site up. From that angle, 4 virtual servers are good.  Web servers are a great option for 'typical' web servers.  However it depends on the application stack (what is involved here is 3rd party applications, components) etc..  I'd load test both situations and see what performs better in your environment.  Steve Schofield Windows Server MVP - IIS http://weblogs.asp.net/steveschofield http://www.IISLogs.com Log archival solution Install, Configure, Forget

• 10-18-2009, 3:30 AM

  In reply to

  stever@bitshop.com Joined on 04-18-2005, 9:15 PM Ashburn, VA Posts 13

  Re: WebFarm NLB Reply Contact The Steve's are in agreement :-) Depends on your app - Hyper-V will introduce a little overhead (trivial) however if you are running SQL Server I wouldn't virtualize that. Also if you go the Hyper-V route google NLB Hyper-V for some info about it (not problem, just extra steps). If all 4 sites would be exactly identical then Hyper-V will be nothing but a slow down, however by using Hyper-V you can have a dev server / test server on each box, even perhaps a about to deploy server image you use to actually update, save the old image and switch to the about to deploy for live - i.e. instead of a snapshot just keep the other server sitting there turned off.  That has some DR (mainly from human error) advantages.   Steve Radich - President BitShop.com - IIS Cloud Solution Coming Soon - Join our "Free 3 Month Beta" Waiting List Now...