Configuring Radware Load Balancers for MAN/WAN Failover
WebLogic Server provides failover within MAN and WAN networks. This feature provides more reliability by allowing failover to occur across a larger geographic area. It also provides failover across multiple WebLogic Server domains.
To provide failover within a MAN/WAN environment, you must use hardware load balancers. This document outlines the procedures for configuring Radware hardware load balancers to work with WebLogic Server.
For information on configuring WebLogic Server to use MAN/WAN, see Session State Replication Across Clusters. For information on configuring Radware hardware load balancers, see www.Radware.com.
The following sections describe how to configure Radware hardware load balancers:
Before performing the procedures described in this appendix, ensure that you have performed the following:
Installed and configured your WebLogic Server environment. This includes creating and configuring clusters and managed servers.
Installed and configured at least two Radware Web Server Director load balancers. This is the minimum hardware requirement for using Radware devices within a MAN/WAN environment. At least one of these must be configured as a global load balancer
Ensured that your network and DNS are configured correctly
Once these requirements are met, use the following procedures to configure your load balancers to work within a MAN/WAN environment.
Step 1: Configure an Authoritative Delegation Zone
The first step in configuring Web Server Director is to create an Authoritative Delegation Zone within the local DNS. To do this, perform the following using the Radware administration utility:
Click on the name of your local DNS
Click New Delegation
Enter a name for the new delegation zone
Add the IP address for each Radware device
Step 2: Configure Farm Virtual IPs and Servers
Web Server Director balances load among servers within a server farm. Clients access a server using a virtual IP address. Web Server Director directs traffic from this virtual IP address to the appropriate server. The following sections describe how to create and configure server farm virtual IPs.
Create a Farm IP
To create a farm IP, perform the following using the Radware administration utility:
Select WSD
Select Farms
Select Farm Table
Click Create a Farm
Enter an IP address and DNS alias for the farm
Ensure that Admin Status is enabled
Click Set
Configure the Dispatch Method for the Server Farm
To configure the dispatch method for the server farm, perform the following procedures using the Radware configuration utility:
Select WSD
Select Farms
Select Farm Table
Select the farm you want to configure
In the Farm Properties window, select the menu next to Dispatch Method
Select the desired algorithm
Click Set
Creating Farm Servers
To configure a farm server, perform the following procedures using the Radware administration utility:
Select WSD
Select Servers
Select Application Servers
Select the Farm IP created above
Add the server IP address
Add the server name
Ensure that Admin Status is enabled
Step 3: Configure Port Multiplexing
Use the following procedures to configure port multiplexing:
Select WSD
Select Farms
Select Farm Table
Select the farm you want to configure
In the Properties window, enter a value in the Multiplexed Port field
Select WSD
Select Servers
Select Application Servers
For each local server, select the server from the table and enter the application port in the Multiplexed Server Port field
Click Set
Step 4: Configure HTTP Redirects
You must configure HTTP redirects in order to configure global load balancers to work within a MAN/WAN environment. HTTP redirects ensure proper distribution of traffic across Web Server Director devices.
To configure HTTP redirect, perform the following procedures using the Radware administration utility:
Select WSD
Select Farms
Select Farm Table
Select the farm that you want to configure
Select HTTP Redirection in the Redirection Mode section
Select HTTP Redirection in the DNS Redirection Fallback section
Click Set
Select WSD
Select Servers
Select Application Servers
Select the server in the farm that represents the distributed farm on the remote WSD
Step 5: Configure Session ID Persistency
Server persistence is based on HTTP session IDs. Web Server Director inspects incoming traffic to a farm, then selects the appropriate server based on session information in the HTTP header. To configure session ID persistency, perform the following procedures using the Radware administration utility:
Select WSD
Select L7 Load Balancing
Select Session Persistency
Click Create.
Select the farm you want to configure
Set the application port of your farm
Set Persistency Identification to JESESSIONID
Set Value Offset to 53.
Set Stop Chars to :!
Set Inactivity Timeout to the value of your session time-out.
Step 6: Configure LRP
Configuring the LRP component ensures that traffic is correctly distributed to remote locations. To configure LRP, perform the following:
Select WSD
Select Distributed Systems
Select Report Configuration
Click Create Distributed Farm Address
Set Distributed Farm Address to the remote farm IP address.
Set Remote WSD Address to the IP address of the second Radware device.
Click Set
Step 7: Configure WebLogic Server Components
After you have configured your Radware devices, you must configure WebLogic Server to use MAN/WAN failover. For information on configuring WebLogic Server to use MAN/WAN, see Session State Replication Across Clusters in a MAN/WAN.
