Network Load Balancing

Creating a Virtual Private Network

This scenario's discussion applies to setting up a virtual private network (VPN) by using the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP).

When using Network Load Balancing with VPN servers to load-balance PPTP clients, it is important to configure the TCP/IP properties correctly to ensure compatibility with clients running earlier versions of Windows (such as Microsoft® Windows® 98 and Windows NT 4.0). To do this, assign only a single virtual IP address to the network adapter used by Network Load Balancing, and do not assign another IP address on any network adapter on this subnet. This restriction does not apply for Windows 2000 clients. Assigning only a single virtual IP address to the network adapter used by Network Load Balancing ensures that network traffic returning from the host to the client originates from the virtual IP address to which the client sent the request.

Set bindings so that Network Load Balancing is enabled for the cluster network adapter (the network adapter with the cluster's virtual address).

Note

If a particular host fails, client sessions handled by that host handle will also break. Clients are prompted to log on again; their new session is handled by one of the remaining hosts.

Port-rules Settings

To provide load-balancing for virtual private network clients, use the default port rule for all hosts, as follows:

Port Range: Set the range to 0-65535, (the default). Setting the range to the default covers all the ports, so the port rule remains valid even if there is a change in the port numbers you want to cover.

Filtering Mode: Accept the default

Affinity: Single (default)

Load Weight/Equal load distribution: Accept the default