When it comes to SharePoint, it is not uncommon for most companies to use a single farm for sharing information amongst its users. While this makes installation convenient, it can severely slow down access as well as increase your vulnerability to risk.
In order to mitigate the negative effects, you can install multiple Web Front-end (WFE) servers and a Network Load Balancer (NLB) to distribute requests and increase reliability through redundancy. With these risk mitigation measures in place, if a WFE server fails, the NLB can distribute requests to other WFE servers.
In part one of our new series on Network Load Balancing, we’ll show you how to display the Network Load Balancing Manager program in Windows Server 2008
By default, Windows Server 2008 does not show the Network Load Balancing Manager. In order to have it displayed, you will need to install it from the Server Manager.
To begin, go to Start > Administrative Tools and select Server Manager.
In Server Manager, right-click on Features and select Add Features.
In the Add Features Wizard, select the Network Load Balancing checkbox and click Next.
Click Install.
Once the installation has been successfully completed, click Close.
Click Start, and go back to Administrative Tools. You will now see the Network Load Balancing Manager program displayed.
Want to learn more about Network Load Balancing, and how you can load balance Web traffic in order to increase the availability and reliability of your SharePoint solution? If so, check out the rest of our series:
- Part Two: How to Display Network Load Balancing Manager in Windows Server 2012
- Part Three: Installing Network Load Balancing on WFE1 in a Three-Server Farm
- Part Four: Installing Network Load Balancing on WFE2 in a Three-Server Farm
- Part Five: How to Disable the Loopback Checking Feature
- Part Six: How to Configure Alternate Access Mappings in SharePoint
- Part Seven: How to Run the Load Balancing URL on a Client Computer
- Part Eight: How to Verify that Load on Your Network is Being Correctly Balanced
