Product description

Network Load Balancing (NLB) is an optional feature in Windows Server® OS that load balances network traffic (sent to a cluster virtual IP address) among multiple servers in an NLB cluster. NLB is particularly useful for ensuring that stateless applications, such as a Web server running Internet Information Services (IIS), are scalable by adding additional servers as the load increases.

Load Balancer Model

As we have load balancer service running on the same host that application we can represent model like Cluster. Additional details of Cluster we represent like Cluster Member and Cluster Service.

A ClusterSetting is modeled as a Cluster.

A NodeSetting and Node are modeled as a ClusterMember.

A PortRuleEx is modeled as a Cluster Service.

Supported portRuleState:

• NOT FOUND
• ENABLE
• DISABLE
• DRAINING

Supported portRuleProtocol:

• TCP
• UDP
• TCP/UDP

Supported nodeStatus:

• STOPPED
• CONVERGING
• CONVERGED
• DEFAULT
• DRAINING
• SUSPENDED

Modeled Components

 Cluster

The pattern creates a Cluster with the following attributes:

Attributes	Value
type	A Cluster type
name	Microsoft Network LoadBalancer %Cluster_name% running on %Cluster_IP%
short_name	MS NLB %Cluster_name% %Cluster_IP%
cluster_name	A ClusterSetting Name
key	A hash of the Cluster IP and Cluster type

The pattern models a containment relationship between the Host  and the Cluster.

ClusterMember

The pattern creates a ClusterMember with the following attributes:

Attributes	Value
key	A hash of the Cluster Member Name and Cluster key
name	Cluster Member IP %cl_member_ip% priority %cl_member_priority%
type	Cluster Member type.
instance_id	NodeStettings Name
ipv4_addrs	IPv4 address from the NodeSetting
ipv6_addrs	IPv6 address from the NodeSetting
description	“Node in Microsoft NLB”
status	Status of the Node
cluster_priority	Priority of the Node

The pattern models a containment relationship between the Cluster and the ClusterMember.

The pattern also models a relationship between the Host and a ClusterMember.

ClusterService

The pattern creates a ClusterService with the following attributes:

Attributes	Value
key	A hash of the Port Rule Name, Ports and Cluster key
name	Protocol %cl_service_protocol% ports %start_port%-%end_port%
status	Port state from PortRuleEx
ipv4_addrs	IPv4 address from the ClusterService
ipv6_addrs	IPv6 address from the ClusterService
listening_ports	Ports listening by Cluster

The pattern models a relationship between the ClusterMember and the ClusterService.

The pattern also models a relationship between the Cluster and a ClusterService.