We did windows nlb for a while but moved to Kemp in June. 2 sites, each has: 3 virtual CAS 2hub/MBX servers 3 copy dag, each DB has 2 copies in site, one across site. ~7K mailboxes, 1400 Blackberries, a few hundred EAS devices.
>From my post on this back in June WNLB at first- We went WNLB for a couple of reasons- $ and it was supported "happily" for our size/needs. Pretty sure it still is but MS doesn't seem to like it nearly as much as they used to-I'd guess based on real world experience? Today, those size/needs would steer towards HLB. IIRC it was a pain for us to set up and get going properly- whether that was WNLB, me, or just all the #$^! that was going on at the time, I dunno. Once it was going I guess it LB's well enough as long as all the boxes were up. not that it was a regular occurrence by any means but if we lost/had to reboot a box it did screw with all the connections on that box. Had to fiddle with patching too (drainstopping etc) but so it goes. Also unless we missed something obvious, the only health checking you have is basically a ping test, HLB goes past that. Kemp, once we got some extra $ Have two 2200 Loadmasters in each site. Stuff I've done resulting in 0 client complaints- Pulled power on the active Kemp Rebooted a CAS Powered down CAS new stuff to report since June- Patching, rebooting, doing anything to a CAS is pretty much a non-event as far as users go. [1] Disable a CAS on the Kemp, all connections automatically go to the "up" servers. [2] Do what you need to do, enable on the Kemp. [3] Watch that it behaves, lather rinse repeat.. The few times we had to talk to Kemp while configuring and setting up the devices they were very quick to respond and follow up. Since then the boxes have been 100%. Nothing but nice things to say about them... From: Maglinger, Paul [mailto:pmaglin...@scvl.com] Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 9:28 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Load Balancers? We are, but we are just at the beginning of our pilot program and haven't done load testing. Failover works just fine though. From: Brian McGloin [mailto:sms...@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 8:11 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Re: Load Balancers? Is anyone using the Windows 2008 Server NLB? Experiences? Thx in advance On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 8:51 AM, Michael B. Smith <mich...@smithcons.com<mailto:mich...@smithcons.com>> wrote: Kemp is a good choice, as is Coyote Point. If you have lots of money, you can also consider Citrix, Cisco, and F5. Regards, Michael B. Smith Consultant and Exchange MVP http://TheEssentialExchange.com From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk<mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk>] Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 8:48 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Load Balancers? I'm starting to think and plan for adding a second Exchange 2010 server and setting up a DAG and CAS array. I know of Kemp, but I'm not familiar with any other vendor when it comes to load balancers. Obviously I can whack it into Google (and have) but on the face of it they all do what I currently want. Any personal recommendations (or nightmares) would be great. A virtual load balancer also sounds like an option as we have a vSphere cluster that should be able to run a pair of appliances in HA. Thanks, Paul ________________________________ MIRA Ltd Watling Street, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV10 0TU, England Registered in England and Wales No. 402570 VAT Registration GB 100 1464 84 The contents of this e-mail are confidential and are solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this e-mail in error, please delete it and notify us either by e-mail, telephone or fax. You should not copy, forward or otherwise disclose the content of the e-mail as this is prohibited. --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com<mailto:listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com> with the body: unsubscribe exchangelist --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com<mailto:listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com> with the body: unsubscribe exchangelist -- smsadm --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com<mailto:listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com> with the body: unsubscribe exchangelist --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com<mailto:listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com> with the body: unsubscribe exchangelist --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe exchangelist
