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 instructions 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.
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.
Note that SafeKit works in VMware environments without the Microsoft NLB problems of unicast and muticast modes. And note also that SafeKit network load balancing is working not only on Windows (including Windows editions for PCs) but also on Linux.
On both Windows servers
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)
Enter IP address of the first node and click on Confirm (next image)
Click on New node and enter IP address of the second node (next image)
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
Click on Validate (next image)
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.
For information:
Click on Validate (previous image)
Click on Configure (previous image)
Check the success green message on both servers and click on Next (previous image)
Start the cluster on both nodes (previous image). Check that the status becomes UP (green) - UP (green) (next image).
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).
Check with Windows Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that the Windows services are started 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 that the Windows services are stopped on the STOP node with Windows Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
To understand what happens in the cluster, check the SafeKit logs of node 1 and node 2.
To see the module log of node 1 (next image):
To see the application log of node 1 (next image):
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.
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.
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.
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).
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
