Install and configure windows 2008 R2 NLB

Log onto both of the servers and run IPCONFIG /ALL from the command prompt. We need the name, domain and IP address of each server that will be in the NLB Cluster. We will also need to make up an additional name for the cluster in this example we will use SERVER-LB for the virtual cluster name.

The 2 servers we will be Load Balancing are PL2008-01 and PL2008-02. The virtual cluster name will be PL2008-V. So if this was a web server users would go to http://PL2008-V, depending how we configure NLB either PL2008-01, PL2008-02 or both servers will service the web request.

SERVER NAME	IP ADDRESS	TYPE
PL2008-01.pintolake.net	192.168.1.180	Server 1
PL2008-02.pintolake.net	192.168.1.181	Server 2
PL2008-V.pintolake.net	192.168.1.182	Virtual cluster name and IP address of Servers 1/2

 

In this example both servers only have one network card. If you have multiple network cards you will still be able to load balance the 2 servers. You need to configure one NIC per server for NLB, both NIC’s should be on the same VLAN and be they should able to contact each other.

PL2008-01

PL2008-02

Installation of NLB feature on all NLB nodes

This should be done on ALL NODES in the NLB Cluster. In this case we are performing this installation on PL2008-01 and PL2008-02.

Open Server Manager, you can open this several different ways in Windows Server 2008. Probably the quickest way to open Server Manager is to right click "My Computer" and choose "Manage", another way is open "Control Panel" go to "Program and Features" and select "Turn Windows features on or off". A third way to open it is "Server Manager" option under Administrative Tools.

• Select "Features" from the Server Manager menu on the left
• Press "Add Features"

• Select the checkbox next to "Network Load Balancing"
• Press "Next"

• Press "Install"

Installation will proceed to install the necessary components

Installation has successes. It is highly recommended that you repeat this process on all nodes in the NLB cluster at this point before continuing with configuration

• Press "Close"

NOTE: Network Load Balancing may also be installed from a command prompt with elevated privileges (right click on the command prompt in the Start menu and select Run as administrator) by running theservermanagercmd -install nlb command. For example: C:\Windows\system32>servermanagercmd -install nlb ...... Start Installation... [Installation] Succeeded: [Network Load Balancing]. <100/100> Success: Installation succeeded.

 

Configuring NLB on NODE 1 (PL2008-01)

Network Load Balanced clusters are built using the Network Load Balancing Manager which you can start from Start -> All Programs -> Administrative Tools menu or from a command prompt by executing nlbmgr.

• Under the Cluster Menu option select "New"

• Enter the first node in the cluster which is PL2008-01
• Press "Connect"

You will have the option to choose which network adapter you want to use, the NIC should be on the same subnet as the other servers in the NLB cluster

• Press "Next"

• Enter the Priority ID as, 1 (each node in the NLB cluster should have a UNIQUE ID)
• Make sure the correct adapter was selected under "Dedicated IP Address"
• Select "Started" for the "Initial host state" (this tells NLB whether you want this node to participate in the cluster at startup)
• Press "Next"

• Press "Add"
• Enter the Cluster IP and Subnet mask
• Press "OK"

You can add multiple IP Addresses for the cluster, enter as many as you want.

• Make sure the "Cluster IP addresses" are correct
• Press "Next"

• Select the IP Address for this cluster
• Enter the NLB address "PL2008-V.pintolake.net"
• Enter "Unicast" as the "Cluster operation mode"
• Press "Next"

Unicast vs Multicast Unicast/Multicast is the way the MAC address for the Virtual IP is presented to the routers. In my experience I have almost always used Multicast, which if you use you should enter a persistent ARP entry on all upstream switches or you will not be able to ping the servers remotely. In the unicast method: The cluster adapters for all cluster hosts are assigned the same unicast MAC address. The outgoing MAC address for each packet is modified, based on the cluster host’s priority setting, to prevent upstream switches from discovering that all cluster hosts have the same MAC address. In the multicast method: The cluster adapter for each cluster host retains the original hardware unicast MAC address (as specified by the hardware manufacture of the network adapter). The cluster adapters for all cluster hosts are assigned a multicast MAC address. The multicast MAC is derived from the cluster’s IP address. Communication between cluster hosts is not affected, because each cluster host retains a unique MAC address. Selecting the Unicast or Multicast Method of Distributing Incoming Requestshttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782694.aspx

I am leaving all the default for the port rules; by default its set to all ports with Single affinity, which is sticky. For more information on Port Rules, see my Note below.

• Press "Finish"

NOTE: Add/Edit Port Rule Settings For most scenarios I would keep the default settings. The most important setting is probably the filtering mode. "Single" works well for most web application, it maintains a users session on one server so if the user server requests go to PL2008-01, PL2008-02 will continue to serve that request for the duration of the session. None You want to ensure even load balancing among cluster hosts Client traffic is stateless (for example, HTTP traffic). Single You want to ensure that requests from a specific client (IP address) are sent to the same cluster host. Client state is maintained across TCP connections (for example, HTTPS traffic). Class C Client requests from a Class C IP address range (instead of a single IP address) are sent to the same cluster host. Clients use multiple proxy servers to access the cluster, and they appear to have multiple IP addresses within the same Class C IP address range. Client state is maintained across TCP connections (for example, HTTPS traffic). For more information on this please see this TechNet article: Specifying the Affinity and Load-Balancing Behavior of the Custom Port Rule http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759039.aspx

You should see a couple of things in the NLB Manager, this will let us know that this node successfully converged on our new PL2008-V.pintolake.net NLB Cluster

• Make sure the node’s status changes to "Converged"
• Make sure you see a "succeeded" message in the log window

Configuring NLB for NODE 2 (PL2008-02)

We will configure PL2008-02 from PL2008-01. If we wanted to configure this from PL2008-02 then we would need to connect to the PL2008-V cluster first then add the host to the cluster.

• Right click the cluster name "PL2008-V.pintolake.net" and select "Add Host to Cluster"

• Enter PL2008-02 and press "Connect"

A list of Network adapters will show up

• Select the network adapter you want to use for Load Balancing
• Press "Next"

This step is very important; each node in the NLB cluster should have a unique identifier. This identifier is used to identify the node in the cluster.

• Enter the Priority ID as, 2 (each node in the NLB cluster should have a UNIQUE ID)
• Make sure the correct adapter was selected under "Dedicated IP Address"
• Select "Started" for the "Initial host state" (this tells NLB whether you want this node to participate in the cluster at startup)
• Press "Next"

• Press "Finish"

You should see a couple of things in the NLB Manager, this will let us know that both nodes successfully converged on our new PL2008-V.pintolake.net NLB Cluster

• Make sure that both node’s status changes to "Converged"
• Make sure each node has a unique "host priority" ID
• Make sure each node is "started" under "initial host state"
• Make sure you see a "succeeded" message in the log window for the second node

A closer look at the configuration information for this NLB cluster

Testing

• Go to the command prompt and type "wlbs query", as you can see HOST 1 and HOST 2 converged successfully on the cluster. This means things are working well.
• Ping each server locally and remotely
• Ping the virtual IP locally and remotely – you should do this three times from each location. If you cannot ping remotely you may need to add a static ARP entry in your switches and/or routers where the host machines reside
  • 1 – Both nodes up
  • 2 – Node 1 down
  • 3 – Node 2 down

install and configure PDF iFilter on SharePoint Server 2010 or Search Server Express 2010

1. Install PDF iFilter 9.0 (64 bit) from here.
2. Download PDF icon file from pdf16.gif and copy at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\.
3. Add the following entry in docIcon.xml file, which can be found at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML.
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   <Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdf16.gif" /> 

4. Add PDF file type on the Manage File Type page under Search Service Application.
5. Open registry by executing regedit on the Start --> Run.
6. Navigate to the following location:
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   \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\
   14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension 

7. Right-click Extension, a menu will appear.
8. Click New--> Key to create a new key for .pdf. See screen shot below:
   
9. Enter .pdf and save key.
   
10. Now add the following GUID in the default value as shown in the figure below.
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    {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603} 

    
11. If you are configuring SharePoint Server 2010, then restart Search service by executing the following command on the command line:

net stop osearch 
net start osearch 

1. If you are configuring PDF iFilter on Search Server 2010, then restart the SharePoint Server Search 14service as shown in the figure below:
   
2. Perform incremental to include PDF files.
3. PDF iFilter is successfully configured. Now you can search for the content of PDF file. See screen shot below:
   

Note: SharePoint Server 2010 or Search Server 2010 Express provides out of the box search support for .ZIP files, so you download and have to install Microsoft Filter pack as you used to do with MOSS 2007.