Inlab Software GmbH - Setting up a dual node Sun X2100 HA load balancing cluster with Apache 2 and BalanceNG

Setting up a dual node Sun X2100 HA load balancing cluster with Apache 2 and BalanceNG

Abstract:

This article shows how to setup a Sun X2100 (Solaris 10) based Apache 2.0 dual node load balanced cluster with BalanceNG in a few easy steps.

BalanceNG is a modern software load balancer which is available for Linux and Solaris, more information is available at this URL: http://www.inlab.de/balanceng/.

Step 1: Setup the Network

Both X2100 are connected to a dumb Gigabit or 100MBit twice, where the bge0 interface is configured as usual and the nge0 interface is being used exclusively by BalanceNG in DSR Direct Server Return) mode.

The network setup is as follows:

Figure 1: Example dual X2100 setup on a dumb Gigabit Ethernet switch

Step 2: Preparing Apache2 on both Nodes

The following minimal steps enable the Solaris 10 Apache2 (please use for testing only):

# cd /etc/apache2
# cp httpd-std.conf httpd.conf
# vi httpd.conf # (uncommenting the "Group nogroup" line)
# svcadm enable svc:/network/http:apache2

Step 3: Installation of BalanceNG

BalanceNG comes as a platform independent package, the installation steps are as follows (user input shown in bold):

# gunzip BalanceNG-1.835-Solaris-pkg.gz
# pkgadd -d BalanceNG-1.835-Solaris-pkg

The following packages are available:
  1  BalanceNG     BalanceNG - Software IP Load Balancer
                   (i386+SPARC) 1.835

Select package(s) you wish to process (or 'all' to process
all packages). (default: all) [?,??,q]:<Enter>

Note: Install BalanceNG with "pkgadd -G" to the global zone only if there are any Solaris 10 non-global zones active.

The following question has to be answered with "yes" as follows:

This package contains scripts which will be executed with super-user
permission during the process of installing this package.

Do you want to continue with the installation of  [y,n,?] y

Step 4: Setup the Loopback Aliases for Direct Server Return

Create on both nodes the file /etc/hostname.lo0:1 containing the virtual server IP address (172.17.2.64 in this example) with the following contents:

172.17.2.64/32

Please verify that there are no specific netmask setting in /etc/netmasks.

After a reboot the loopback alias is set as follows (verified by ifconfig):

$ ifconfig lo0:1
lo0:1: flags=2001000849 mtu 8232 index 1
        inet 172.17.2.64 netmask ffffffff
$

Step 5: Obtaining BalanceNG Licences

This setup uses VRRP and requires full BalanceNG licensing. Free testing licenses are available, more information is at http://www.inlab.de/balanceng/.

The nodeid of the BalanceNG host can be retrieved that way:

# bng start
BalanceNG: starting up ...
# bng control
BalanceNG: connected to PID 14598
bng# show nodeid
  11:22:33:44:55:66
bng# ... bye
#

The license is activated by the "license" configuration command:

# bng control
BalanceNG: connected to PID 14598
bng# license TEST0611021 972bd16262ab0ae4cd2627f1203166d8
bng#

Licensing can be verified as follows:

# bng control
BalanceNG: connected to PID 14598
bng# show license
  status: valid full license
  serial: TEST0611021
  nodeid: 11:22:33:44:55:66
  type "show version" for version and Copyright information
bng#

Step 6: Setup the BalanceNG Configuration Files

BalanceNG configuration for node A

//        configuration taken Tue Apr 24 08:57:21 2007 
//        BalanceNG 1.835 (created 2007/04/22)
hostname  NodeA
license   TEST0611021 972bd16262ab0ae4cd2627f1203166d8
set       localdsr 1
interface nge0
vrrp      {
          vrid 14
          priority 201
          network 1
}         
network   1 {
          addr 172.17.2.0
          mask 255.255.255.0
          real 172.17.2.61
          interface nge0
}         
register  network 1
enable    network 1
server    1 {
          ipaddr 172.17.2.64
          port 80
          protocol tcp
          method session
          targets 1,2
}         
register  server 1
enable    server 1
target    1 {
          ipaddr 172.17.2.90
          port 80
          protocol tcp
          ping 3,10
          tcpopen 80,3,10
          dsr enable
}         
target    2 {
          ipaddr 172.17.2.91
          port 80
          protocol tcp
          ping 3,10
          tcpopen 80,3,10
          dsr enable
}         
register  targets 1,2
enable    targets 1,2
//        end of configuration

BalanceNG configuration for node B

//        configuration taken Tue Apr 24 08:58:07 2007 
//        BalanceNG 1.835 (created 2007/04/22)
hostname  NodeB
license   TEST0611022 b74d38652975623d8358e6faa2b9abf5
set       localdsr 1
interface nge0
vrrp      {
          vrid 14
          priority 200
          network 1
}         
network   1 {
          addr 172.17.2.0
          mask 255.255.255.0
          real 172.17.2.62
          interface nge0
}         
register  network 1
enable    network 1
server    1 {
          ipaddr 172.17.2.64
          port 80
          protocol tcp
          method session
          targets 1,2
}         
register  server 1
enable    server 1
target    1 {
          ipaddr 172.17.2.90
          port 80
          protocol tcp
          ping 3,10
          tcpopen 80,3,10
          dsr enable
}         
target    2 {
          ipaddr 172.17.2.91
          port 80
          protocol tcp
          ping 3,10
          tcpopen 80,3,10
          dsr enable
}         
register  targets 1,2
enable    targets 1,2
//        end of configuration

Step 7: Testing

After having started both BalanceNG nodes the following tests should succeed:

"bng status" should show "running" on both nodes,
"show license" in BalanceNG interactive mode ("bng control") should display a valid licensing,
"show log" should display no errors or warnings,
"show vrrp" reveals which node is the VRRP master,
"show targets" should display both targets as "operational",
connecting to port 80 on the server 1 virtual IP address (172.17.2.64) should succeed (initiated from a testing client in the same network),
"show sessions" should display the session created by connecting to the virtual server.