Microsoft Corporation
September 1999
Summary: Announcement and explanation of the redeployment of COM+ Load Balancing (CLB) from Microsoft® Windows® 2000 to Microsoft AppCenter Server. (2 printed pages)
On September 13, 1999, Microsoft announced the redeployment of the COM+ load balancing feature, known as Component Load Balancing (CLB), from Windows 2000 to the upcoming Microsoft AppCenter Server. This change is effective with Windows 2000 Beta 3 Release Candidate 2. CLB was previously part of Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter Server. This packaging change will not affect the ship schedule or quality of Windows 2000. Network Load Balancing and Windows Clustering remain core components of Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter Server and are not affected by this change.
Feedback from customers evaluating CLB as part of the Windows 2000 beta program has been very positive, but it indicated there was a need for additional functionality around CLB in the areas of management, monitoring, and deployment. In response to this feedback, Microsoft is developing AppCenter Server, the high-availability deployment and management solution for Web applications built on the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system. AppCenter Server will include CLB as part of its core functionality in direct response to this customer feedback.
Microsoft is committed to delivering a set of clustering features for the Windows 2000 platform that enable the creation of highly scalable and available multitier networks. These clustering features include Network Load Balancing and Windows Clustering in addition to CLB. Network Load Balancing acts as a front-end cluster, distributing incoming IP traffic across a cluster of up to 32 servers, and is ideal for enabling incremental scalability and outstanding availability for e-commerce Web sites. The Cluster service acts as a back-end cluster, providing high availability for applications such as databases, messaging, and file and print services. Windows 2000 Advanced Server supports 2-node clusters with the Cluster service, and Datacenter Server supports 4-node clusters.
With Release Candidate 2, customers building distributed solutions can create scalable multitiered clustered solutions using Network Load Balancing and Windows Clustering. The new addition to Microsoft’s expanding clustering feature set, CLB complements these solutions by load balancing on the middle or business logic tier. When formally released with AppCenter Server CLB will form a key part of the Windows clustering solution.
This packaging change has no effect on the anticipated release schedule, quality, or stability of Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Datacenter Server. Most customers planning to deploy clustering solutions based on the Windows 2000 platform are unaffected by this change. Any customers who are currently evaluating CLB and plan to deploy it in a production environment prior to release of AppCenter Server may obtain a technology preview of Component Load Balancing by e-mailing Microsoft Product Support Services at clb@microsoft.com.