The Microsoft Windows NT Load Balancing Service is designed to merge the resources of two or more servers running Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition into a single front-end cluster for Web sites, FTP, proxy, and other services. It installs as a standard Windows NT networking driver and runs on any existing local area network (LAN). Once installed, it operates in a fully transparent manner to both server applications and to TCP/IP clients. Clients can access the cluster as if it were a single computer by using one IP address.
Under normal operations, WLBS automatically balances the networking traffic between the clustered computers, scaling the performance of one server to any level required. When a computer fails or goes offline, WLBS automatically reconfigures the cluster to direct the client connections to the remaining computers. The offline computer can transparently rejoin the cluster and regain its share of the workload. This contrasts with other load balancing solutions, which typically introduce single points of failure or performance bottlenecks and cost significantly more.
Robert Kelly, vice president of product development for TV Guide Online, says this new feature of Windows NT Server is essential to the Web site, which needs to handle a large volume of client requests without creating any unwanted delays.
"The orchestration of our content on the site gets very complicated because we have a set of editors who are constantly pushing materials onto the site throughout the day," Kelly says. "We have to be able to access all of the data in our database and then make it available for customers around the clock. With the Microsoft technology, we've been able to build a high-performance, very dynamic database structure that allows us to serve huge numbers of customers."
Tim Demers, manager of product development, adds that Windows NT Server with WLBS has made it easy to move servers in and out of online activity. "As we continue to roll features onto the Web site, it's really easy to take servers out of commission temporarily and conduct some testing. When we feel a feature set is ready, we roll the server right back into the live site. Users never know the difference, and it lets us take advantage of all the servers that we have on the site." The TV Guide Online development team plans to add a new server to the cluster if the workload exceeds a certain level-the threshold is an average CPU
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