Chapter 18 - Network Load Balancing - Do I know this already?

Question 1

Which of the following is not a valid prerequisite for NLB?

a. All hosts in the cluster must have DHCP assigned addresses.
b. All hosts should possess an identical user account.
c. All hosts connect to the same subnet.
d. There must be support for up to 32 hosts.

Answer 1

a. All hosts in the cluster must have DHCP assigned addresses.

Question 2

After you install the NLB feature, what management tool is available from Server Manager?

a. Network Load Balancing Manager
b. Application Balancing Manager
c. Storage Manager
d. Cluster Manager

Answer 2

a. Network Load Balancing Manager

Question 3

Which of the following is not a port filtering rule in NLB? a. Disable

b. Single
c. Cluster Only
d. Multiple Host

Answer 3

c. Cluster Only

Question 4

What upgrade type for an NLB cluster provides the least downtime?

a. Dynamic upgrade
b. Static upgrade
c. Rolling upgrade
d. Simultaneous upgrade

Answer 4

d. Simultaneous upgrade

Question 5

What is Network Load Balancing (NLB) Cluster?

Answer 5

A group of hosts that dynamically distribute client traffic to hosts in a cluster.

Question 6

What is Affinty?

Answer 6

The ability to control how a cluster reacts to repeated requests from the same client.

Question 7

What are Port rules?

Answer 7

Rules that define the types of TCP/IP traffic an NLB cluster processes.

Question 8

What is Cluster Operation Mode?

Answer 8

A mode that determines whether a cluster uses unicast or multicast.

Question 9

What is Simultaneous Upgrade?

Answer 9

With this upgrade approach, you bring down the entire NLB cluster, upgrade all the hosts, and then bring up the cluster again. This entails a significant amount of downtime for the clustered application.

Question 10

What is a Rolling Upgrade?

Answer 10

With this upgrade approach, you remove the hosts from the cluster, one at a time, upgrade each one, and then add each one back to the cluster. NLB accommodates the addition and removal of hosts, so the cluster converges each time you remove or add one of the servers.

Question 11

What port filtering mode setting can benefit from affinity?

Answer 11

Multiple Host

Question 12

What affinity rule ensures that all traffic from the same IP address is sent to a single host?

Answer 12

Single

Question 13

What are the prerequisites for Network Load Balancing?

Answer 13

• NLB clusters can support up to 32 hosts.
• In general, no shared storage or other specialized hardware is required for NLB.
• Unlike with a failover cluster, the computers you use to create NLB hosts need not be identical.
• All the hosts in an NLB cluster must be connected to the same subnet.
• Network latency must be minimized to allow the convergence process to proceed normally.
• To provide site-based fault tolerance, in the event of a large-scale disaster, best practice is to create separate NLB clusters at different locations and use another mechanism to distribute client requests between the two sites; DNS round-robin is a common practice.
• The NLB hosts can have as many network interface adapters as needed for other purposes, but the network adapters used for NLB must all use either multicast or unicast transmissions.
• While other versions of Windows Server support NLB, best practice is to have all the hosts in an NLB cluster run the same version and the same edition of Windows Server.
• All hosts in an NLB cluster must have static IP addresses.
• All hosts in an NLB cluster should have an identical user account, with membership in the local Administrators group, which the Network Load Balancing Manager uses to access them.

Question 14

How do you install NLB?

Answer 14

Step 1. Launch the Network Load Balancing Manager console from the Tools menu in Server Manager
Step 2. Select Cluster > New.
Step 3. On the New Cluster: Connect page, in the Host text box type the name of the first host you want to add to the cluster and then click Connect.
Step 4. Select the interface the host will use for the cluster.
Step 5. On the New Cluster: Host Parameters page, select a value from the Priority (Unique Host Identifier) drop-down list, as shown in Figure 18-3. This value must be unique on each host you install; any traffic that does not conform to the port rules configured for the cluster will be forwarded to the host with the lowest priority value

Question 15

What are the Affinity settings for NLB?

Answer 15

None: Incoming requests from the same IP address can be handled by any host.
Single: All traffic coming from a single IP address is sent to the same host.
Network: All traffic originating from the same Class C network is sent to the same host.