Some time ago I failed to find proper discription, how backup Network should be configured in NLB, because it seems to be too many options here. I´m having troubles in MBAM, its IIS autherization failing with error code 401 when dedicated FQDN adress is used which points to NLB cluster. More information about my MBAM problem is here:
Now I need to know, what is the proper way to configure NIC and TCP/IP in NLB hosts. As I see it, there are few options but which one is the one?
1. On hosts, 1st NIC is with domain IPs, 2nd NIC is direct IP to another´s host 2nd NIC. This is the way how it should be done in Fail-Over Cluster, but this method does not seem to work witn NLB at all. Cluster adress does not respond.
2. On hosts, 1st and 2nd NIC is configured both to domain Network, same subnet. 2nd nic does not have default gateway. This method works somehow, but displays error in NLB console, when cluster is created.
3. On hosts, there is only one NIC to domain Network and no backup Network at all. This probably requires multicast mode? In MBAM HA documentation, NLB is discribed as unicast.
Hosts, meaning nodes, are 2012 R2 and located on Hyper-V 2012 R2. MAC spoofing is enabled.
- An additional side question - is it true, that NLB feature is not so reliable, and non-Microsoft hardware NLB is recommended for big companies, or did I just mess my NLB configuration so bad?