Configuring a hardware load balancer with BMC Remedy AR System

High-load environments present special issues relating to performance, hardware capacity, system downtime, and so on. A high-load environment presents two major issues:

• System scalability is dependent upon the capacity of the hardware. If the existing hardware is at its limit, it needs to be replaced by bigger, more powerful hardware. New hardware is often much more expensive than existing hardware. The old hardware could only be used as a "hot" standby system. (A hot standby system is running and ready for immediate service. It can be switched into service manually or automatically upon detection of a failure in the active equipment.)
• The system needs to be available for as much time as possible. This can be challenging and often requires redundant systems. The backup system is often in hot standby mode and is only activated in the event of an outage. Only one system can be used in production.

The solution to both challenges is a technology commonly used in the web environment — a load balancer. You can use a hardware load balancer to improve the scalability and availability of BMC Remedy Action Request System (AR System) servers.

A load balancer is a valuable component in building a scalable, highly available BMC Remedy AR System infrastructure. Scalability is achieved through the ability to add BMC Remedy AR System servers as demand and workload increase. High availability is achieved by configuring multiple BMC Remedy AR System servers to handle client requests, and if one server fails, other servers in the group handle the additional workload. By creating an infrastructure that scales with workload and reduces downtime, you can maximize the return on your BMC Remedy AR System investment.

This section provides the following topics to help you understand how to use a hardware load balancer to improve the scalability and availability of the BMC Remedy AR System: