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Terminal services for Unicast and Multicast address

Answered Terminal services for Unicast and Multicast address

  • Monday, June 13, 2011 10:30 AM
     
     
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    Hi Team,

    We can configure NLB via Terminal services for Unicast  and Multicast address.

    Unicast address use same MAC address across the Terminal servers, now when the packet reaches switch then the switch floods the packet to all the ports.

    What we achive through this ?

    Secondly in multicast mode we have 2 MAC  address for NLB and for Terminal servers therby stopping broadcast.

    What we achive through this ?

    Hoping for early help ..........

     

    Regards,

    Dhruv

     

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  • Tuesday, June 14, 2011 3:22 AM
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    Hi Dhruv,

     

    Thanks for posting here.

     

    Could you first discuss the terminal service environment that you want to NLB to work with in detail ?Generally , the explication is below:

     

    Cluster operation mode (multicast / unicast): If the gateway servers have multiple network adapters, use unicast cluster operation mode. It is a requirement that the TS Gateway farm can communicate between gateway servers. So if you have only a single NIC on gateway servers, then multicast should be used to enable communication between gateway servers in the cluster.

     

    Session “Recommendations about NLB parameters for TS Gateway farm scenario” in article “Improving TS Gateway availability using NLB”

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2009/03/24/improving-ts-gateway-availability-using-nlb.aspx

     

    Thanks.

     

    Tiger Li

    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
     
  • Tuesday, June 14, 2011 6:39 PM
     
     
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    Hi Dhruv,

     

    Thanks for posting here.

     

    Could you first discuss the terminal service environment that you want to NLB to work with in detail ?Generally , the explication is below:

     

    Cluster operation mode (multicast / unicast): If the gateway servers have multiple network adapters, use unicast cluster operation mode. It is a requirement that the TS Gateway farm can communicate between gateway servers. So if you have only a single NIC on gateway servers, then multicast should be used to enable communication between gateway servers in the cluster.

     

    Session “Recommendations about NLB parameters for TS Gateway farm scenario” in article “Improving TS Gateway availability using NLB”

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2009/03/24/improving-ts-gateway-availability-using-nlb.aspx

     

    Thanks.

     

    Tiger Li

    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.


    Hi Li,

    Thank you for the udpate.

    Want to confirm few points.

    1. When we use NLB then the NLB Server must have multiple LAN Cards, which is mapped to the multiple Terminal Servers.

    2. I can understand that is the Gateway has multiple LAN card then we should use Unicast mode. But using Unicast mode we have same MAC address to the NLB IP Address and the end Terminal Servers.

    I can not understadn that what we achive using the same ?

    Kind Regards,

    Dhruv

     

     
  • Wednesday, June 15, 2011 1:07 AM
     
     
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    Hi Dhruv,

    I'm not quite following if you've stated that each NLB node is single NIC or dual NIC?

    Is the terminal server a gateway or a standalone that all inbound connections connect to?

    Do you have the same setup as the diagram in the link Tiger posted?

    Ace

    Ace Fekay
    MVP, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007 & Exchange 2010, Exchange 2010 Enterprise Administrator, MCSE & MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
    Microsoft Certified Trainer
    Microsoft MVP - Directory Services

    This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

     
  • Wednesday, June 15, 2011 9:06 AM
     
     
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    Hi Ace,

    Nice to see you back.. :-)

    I have a NLB  server : VIP IP Address : 10.130.35.76

    Terminal servers : 10.130.35.189 and 10.130.35.201

    When users connect to the Terminal server via NLB in Unicast mode:

    *************************************************************

    IP Config /all on each terminal servers :

    Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-BF-0A-82-23-4C
       DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.130.35.76
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.130.35.201
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.130.35.100
       DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 127.0.0.1

    Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-BF-0A-82-23-4C
       DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.130.35.76
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.130.35.189
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.130.35.100
       DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.130.35.201

    From above facts it is clear that each terminal server servers same MAC address and virtual VIP.

    Now, i want to know why MS has designed the same.

    If my NLB and the Terminal Servers are connected to the same switch then it will create a mess.. since all ports have same MAC address, every packet would be a broadcast. :-(

    I hope this explanation will help.

    Regards,

    Dhruv

     

     

     

     
  • Wednesday, June 15, 2011 9:23 AM
     
     
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    Hi Ace,

    Adding to the point

    Orignal MAC address of the Terminal servers are : 00-0c-29-31-86-72 for 10.130.35.189 and 00-0c-29-04-1e-34 for 10.130.35.201

    Tiger, told me in his previous post that "If the gateway servers have multiple network adapters, use unicast cluster operation mode. It is a requirement that the TS Gateway farm can communicate between gateway servers. So if you have only a single NIC on gateway servers, then multicast should be used to enable communication between gateway servers in the cluster."

     >>>>> if I am using single NIC on the Gateway Servers then you should enable "Multicast" between the Gateway Servers in the Cluster". Does it mean that the Terminal servers have multiple LAN Cards ?? >> !!~~

    It sounds very confusing :-(

     

    Regards,

    Dhruv

     


     
  • Wednesday, June 15, 2011 1:45 PM
     
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    Hi Ace,

    Adding to the point

    Orignal MAC address of the Terminal servers are : 00-0c-29-31-86-72 for 10.130.35.189 and 00-0c-29-04-1e-34 for 10.130.35.201

    Tiger, told me in his previous post that "If the gateway servers have multiple network adapters, use unicast cluster operation mode. It is a requirement that the TS Gateway farm can communicate between gateway servers. So if you have only a single NIC on gateway servers, then multicast should be used to enable communication between gateway servers in the cluster."

     >>>>> if I am using single NIC on the Gateway Servers then you should enable "Multicast" between the Gateway Servers in the Cluster". Does it mean that the Terminal servers have multiple LAN Cards ?? >> !!~~

    It sounds very confusing :-(

     

    Regards,

    Dhruv

     



    Hi Ace,

    I found the answer...

    I did soe lab tests and found that when we use NLB with Unicast mode then all the nodes are provided same mac address i.e. cluster mac address and thus normal network traffic to the node / TS is blocked.

    If we use the same in Multicast mode then TS will allow both cluster traffic which will hear at cluster mac and normal LAN traffic at orignal MAC address.

    Thank you for your help..

    Wish you were here.. :-)

    Regards,

    Dhruv

     

    • Marked As Answer by Dhruv.tech Wednesday, June 15, 2011 1:46 PM
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  • Wednesday, June 15, 2011 3:57 PM
     
     
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    I'm glad you came up with a solution! I think that comes back to what Tiger suggested, that if the TS has multiple NICs, that you need to use Unicast.

    It would be nice to visit you one day! Maybe when I retire. :-)

    Ace

    Ace Fekay
    MVP, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007 & Exchange 2010, Exchange 2010 Enterprise Administrator, MCSE & MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
    Microsoft Certified Trainer
    Microsoft MVP - Directory Services

    This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.