Windows: The Simplest Load Balancing Cluster with Failover

Windows: The Simplest High Availability Cluster with Synchronous Replication and Failover

Evidian SafeKit brings load balancing and failover to Windows. This article explains how to implement quickly a Windows cluster without network load balancers or dedicated proxy servers. SafeKit is installed directly on the Windows servers. The high availabity module farm.safe and a free trial are offered in the installation section.

Note that you can implement with the same product real-time replication and failover of the back-end application like Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL or other applications: see examples of mirror modules here.

This clustering solution is recognized as the simplest to implement by our customers and partners. It is also a complete solution that solves hardware failures (20% of problems) including the complete failure of a computer room, software failures (40% of problems) including smooth upgrade server by server and human errors (40% of problems) thanks to its simplicity of administration.

How the Evidian SafeKit software simply implements Windows load balancing and failover without network load balancers or dedicated proxy servers

How the Evidian SafeKit farm cluster implements Windows load balancing and failover?

On the previous figure, Windows services are running of the 3 servers. Users are connected to a virtual IP address which is configured locally on each server. The input traffic for the virtual IP address is received by all the servers and split among them by a filter inside each server's kernel.

The network load balancing algorithm inside the filter is based on the identity of the client packets (client IP address, client TCP port). Depending on the identity of the client packet input, only one filter in a server accepts the packet; the other filters in other servers reject it.

Once a packet is accepted by the filter on a server, only the CPU and memory of this server are used by Windows services that responds to the request of the client. The output messages are sent directly from the Windows server to the client.

If a server fails, the SafeKit membership protocol reconfigures the filters in the network load balancing cluster to re-balance the traffic on the remaining available servers.

Demonstration of a farm module

This demonstration shows the configuration of a generic farm.safe module with Apache but the configuration is the same with other applications. Note that with preconfigured modules, restart scripts are preconfigured.

Customers

Key differentiators of Windows load balancing and failover with the Evidian SafeKit farm cluster

Evidian SafeKit farm cluster with load balancing and failover

No load balancer or dedicated proxy servers or special multicast Ethernet address No load balancer or dedicated proxy servers

Like   The solution does not require load balancers or dedicated proxy servers above the farm for imlementing load balancing. SafeKit is installed directly on the application servers in the farm. The load balancing is based on a standard virtual IP address/Ethernet MAC address and is working with physical servers or virtual machines on Windows and Linux without special network configuration

Dislike  This is not the case with network load balancers

Dislike  This is not the case with dedicated proxies on Linux

Dislike  This is not the case with a specific multicast Ethernet address on Windows

All clustering features All clustering features

Like  The solution includes all clustering features: virtual IP address, load balancing on client IP address or on sessions, server failure monitoring, network failure monitoring, software failure monitoring, automatic application restart with a quick revovery time and a replication option with a mirror module

Dislike  This is not the case with other load balancing solutions. They are able to make load balancing but they do not include a full clustering solution with restart scripts and automatic application restart in case of failure. They do not offer a replication option

Like   The cluster configuration is very simple and made by means of a high availability application module. There is no domain controller or active directory to configure on Windows. The solution works on Windows and Linux

Remote sites Remote sites

Like   If servers are connected to the same IP network through an extended LAN between remote sites, the virtual IP address of SafeKit is working with load balancing at level 2

Like   If servers are connected to different IP networks between remote sites, the virtual IP address can be configured at the level of a load balancer. SafeKit offers a health check: the load balancer is configured with a URL managed by SafeKit which returns OK on the UP servers and NOT FOUND else. This solution is implemented for SafeKit in the Cloud but it can be also implemented with a load balancer on premise. Thus you can implement load balancing but also all the clustering features of SafeKit including an easy administration of the cluster through the SafeKit web console

Uniform high availability solution Uniform high availability solution

Like  SafeKit imlements a farm cluster with load balancing and failover. But it implements also a mirror cluster with replication and failover. Thus a N-tiers architecture can me made highly available and load balanced with the same solution on Windows and Linux (same installation, configuration, administration with the SafeKit console or with the command line interface). This is unique on the market

Dislike  This is not the case with an architecture mixing different technologies for load balancing, replication and failover

FAQ on Evidian SafeKit [+]

Installation of SafeKit for Windows load balancing and failover

Package installation on Windows

Configuration instructions

The configuration is presented with the web console connected to 2 Windows servers.

Important: all the configuration must be done from a single browser.

Launch the web console in a browser by connecting to http://localhost:9010 (next image)

Start the SafeKit web console for configuring Windows

Enter IP address of the first node and click on Confirm (next image)

SafeKit web console - first Windows node in the cluster

Click on New node and enter IP address of the second node (next image)

SafeKit web console - second Windows node in the cluster

Click on the red floppy disk to save the configuration (previous image)

In the Configuration tab, click on farm.safe (xxx.safe in the next image) then  enter farm as the module name and Confirm (the console finds farm.safe in the demo/ directory that you previously filled)

SafeKit web console - start configuration of Windows SafeKit web console - enter Windows module name

Click on Validate (next image)

SafeKit web console - enter Windows module nodes

Set the virtual IP address of the cluster, the TCP port of the service to load balance and the criterion on source IP address or source TCP port (next image).

A virtual IP address is a new unused IP address in the same IP network as the IP addresses of the two nodes. The load balancing will be made on the virtual IP address/TCP port according the criterion. This article explains difference between source IP address and source TCP port.

SafeKit web console - enter Windows parameters

For information:

Click on Validate (previous image)

SafeKit web console - stop the Windows module before configuration

Click on Configure (previous image)

SafeKit web console - check the success green messages of the Windows configuration

Check the success green message on both servers and click on Next (previous image)

SafeKit web console - start the Windows cluster on both nodes

Start the cluster on both nodes (previous image). Check that the status becomes UP (green) - UP (green) (next image).

SafeKit web console - Windows cluster started

The cluster is operational with Windows services running on both UP nodes (previous image).

Be careful, components which are clients of the Windows services must be configured with the virtual IP address. The configuration can be made with a DNS name (if a DNS name has been created and associated with the virtual IP address).

Tests

Check with Windows Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that the Windows services have been started by start_both on both UP nodes. Put Windows services with Boot Startup Type = Manual (SafeKit controls start of Windows services).

Stop one UP node by scrolling down the menu of the node and by clicking on Stop. Check that the load balancing is reconfigured with only the other node taking all TCP connections. And check with Windows Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that the Windows services have been stopped by stop_both on the STOP node.

Event logs of module and application

To see the module log of node 1 which contains events in the cluster (next image):

SafeKit web console - Module Log of the Windows node 1

To see the application log of node 1 which contains output messages from restart scripts (start_both and stop_both) (next image):

SafeKit web console - Application Log of Windows node 1

To see the logs of node 2 (previous image), click on W12R2server75/UP (it will become blue) on the left side and repeat the same operations.

Advanced configuration

In Advanced Configuration tab (next image), you can edit internal files of the module: bin/start_both and bin/stop_both and conf/userconfig.xml (next image on the left side). If you make change in the internal files here, you must apply the new configuration by a right click on the blue icon/xxx on the left side (next image): the interface will allow you to redeploy the modified files on both servers.

SafeKit web console - Advanced configuration of the Windows module

Configure boot start (next image on the right side) configures the automatic boot of the module when the server boots. Do this configuration on both nodes once the Windows load balancing and failover solution is correctly running.

SafeKit web console - automatic boot of the Windows module

Support

For getting support on the call desk of https://support.evidian.com, get 2 Snaphots (2 .zip files), one for each server and upload them in the call desk tool (next image).

SafeKit web console - Windows snaphots for support

Internal files of the Windows farm.safe module

userconfig.xml

<!DOCTYPE safe>
<safe>
<service mode="farm" maxloop="3" loop_interval="24">
  <!-- Farm topology configuration for the membership protocol -->
  <!-- Names or IP addresses on the default network are set during initialization in the console -->
  <farm>
    <lan name="default" />
  </farm>
  <!-- Virtual IP Configuration -->
  <!-- Replace
     * VIRTUAL_IP_ADDR_TO_BE_DEFINED by the IP address of your virtual server 
  -->
  <vip>
    <interface_list>
      <interface check="on" arpreroute="on">
        <virtual_interface type="vmac_directed">
          <virtual_addr addr="VIRTUAL_IP_ADDR_TO_BE_DEFINED" where="alias"/>
        </virtual_interface>
      </interface>
    </interface_list>
    <loadbalancing_list>
      <group name="Windows_Appli">
        <!-- Set load-balancing rule on the TCP port of the service to load balance -->
        <rule port="TCP_PORT_TO_BE_DEFINED" proto="tcp" filter="on_addr"/>
      </group>
    </loadbalancing_list>
  </vip>
  <!-- TCP Checker Configuration -->
  <!-- Replace
     * VIRTUAL_IP_ADDR_TO_BE_DEFINED by the IP address of your virtual server 
     * TCP_PORT_TO_BE_DEFINED by the TCP port of the service to check
  -->
  <check>
    <tcp ident="Check_Appli" when="both">
      <to
         addr="VIRTUAL_IP_ADDR_TO_BE_DEFINED"
         port="TCP_PORT_TO_BE_DEFINED"
         interval="10"
         timeout="5"
       />
    </tcp>
  </check>
  <!-- User scripts activation -->
  <user nicestoptimeout="300" forcestoptimeout="300" logging="userlog" />
</service>
</safe>

start_both.cmd

@echo off

rem Script called on all servers for starting applications

rem For logging into SafeKit log use:
rem "%SAFE%\safekit" printi | printe "message"

rem stdout goes into Application log
echo "Running start_both %*" 

set res=0

rem Fill with your services start call

set res=%errorlevel%
if %res% == 0 goto end

:stop
set res=%errorlevel%
"%SAFE%\safekit" printe "start_both failed"

rem uncomment to stop SafeKit when critical
rem "%SAFE%\safekit" stop -i "start_both"

:end

stop_both.cmd

@echo off

rem Script called on all servers for stopping application

rem For logging into SafeKit log use:
rem "%SAFE%\safekit" printi | printe "message"

rem ----------------------------------------------------------
rem
rem 2 stop modes:
rem
rem - graceful stop
rem   call standard application stop with net stop
rem
rem - force stop (%1=force)
rem   kill application's processes
rem
rem ----------------------------------------------------------

rem stdout goes into Application log
echo "Running stop_both %*" 

set res=0

rem default: no action on forcestop
if "%1" == "force" goto end

rem Fill with your services stop call

rem If necessary, uncomment to wait for the real stop of services
rem "%SAFEBIN%\sleep" 10

if %res% == 0 goto end

"%SAFE%\safekit" printe "stop_both failed"

:end