2X LoadBalancer - Accelereert de prestaties, vergroot het gemak

De LoadBalancer is misschien wel het meest gebruikte product van 2X, en daar is geen toeval bij. Naarmate steeds meer organisaties ervoor kiezen aanvullende utilities achterwege te laten en het te houden bij de Windows Terminal Services basis van de SBC infrastructuur, realiseren ook steeds meer systeembeheerders zich dat zij noodzakelijke of op zijn minst wenselijke functionaliteit tekortkomen. LoadBalancing is een klassiek voorbeeld daarvan. Daar waar gebruikers in een multi-server omgeving steeds een deel van de servercapaciteit ter beschikking krijgen, is het een must de gebruikers gelijkmatig over de verschillende servers te verdelen of bij voorkeur de werkelijke belasting evenredig over de servers uit te smeren.

Met de Windows omgeving heeft de klant al beschikbaarheid over zogenoemde round-robin loadbalancing, het principe waarbij gebruikersessies om en om over de beschikbare servers worden verdeeld. Dit principe is echter weinig effectief. De last per gebruiker is immers ongelijk en aan fluctuaties onderhevig, bovendien wordt geen rekening gehouden met verminderde server belasting door uitloggende gebruikers. Het aantal inloggende gebruikers geeft niet meer dan een richting aan en verschaft geen betrouwbare informatie over de werkelijke lading van de servers. De 2X LoadBalancer telt het aantal gebruikersessies en meet vooral ook de CPU belasting en het gebruik van RAM geheugen als indicatoren van de systeem belasting. Hierdoor wordt de lading zo secuur mogelijk verdeeld, waardoor gebruikers profiteren van een constante goede performance van hun terminal sessie. De LoadBalancer gaat bovendien verder met het herverbinden van verbroken sessies, waardoor de gebruikers profiteren van het hoogste gebruiksgemak: geen nieuwe desktop opstarten en eenvoudigweg verder werken waar hij of zij gebleven was voordat de verbinding verbrak. Ook bij uitval op de terminal server zelf zorgt de automatische redundantie met LoadBalancer voor optimaal gemak en productiviteit. Niet in de laatste plaats ondersteunt de LoadBalancer het gebruik van beveiligde verbindingen met VPN SSL.

De meest belangrijke eigenschappen:

• Resource Based Load Balancing
• Redundant Terminal Servers
• Session Reconnect
• Firewall friendly VPN SLL
• Support for Windows and Citrix

Bridgwater College passes desktop efficiency and continuity test with 2X Software

A leading UK college of education, Bridgwater has realised the potential of 2X Load Balancer in order to maximise the control and cost effectiveness of its server based computing strategy while ensuring high availability of IT as a key learning resource across all of its locations.

Bridgwater College in Somerset is a highly successful multi-site provider of education and training boasting Beacon status and an Ofsted Outstanding rating. It caters for over 16,000 full and part-time students and employs more than 1,000 staff across its two main centres and other outreach locations across the south west.

Providing excellent service and computing facilities to its students and staff cost effectively is a key element in Bridgwater’s IT strategy. Access to IT facilities is at the core of much of its effective learning and it has to maintain a large number of concurrently and constantly used desktops across its varied locations.

Bridgwater originally chose to pursue a server based computing and thin client desktop IT strategy in order to achieve cost effectiveness and control in serving a large and varied user base across different sites. Effective load balancing of users’ desktops to server resources was essential due to the ‘big switch on’ that happens daily in educational establishments.

“Because the organisation runs to strict timetables, we frequently have many users logging on to desktops at the same time, said Dave Foster, Head of IT Services at Bridgwater College. “We realised that effective load balancing was critical if we were to maintain a cost effective server based computing infrastructure that could deal with these specific user dynamics.”

Over time, Bridgwater’s server upgrades have increased the number of users that can be provisioned from each server, extending the criticality of its load balancing. “We have 600 users logged onto the system at any one time and have reduced our server numbers by approximately two thirds in the last five years. This gives us the advantage of consolidating server budgets but means that we needed a best in class but cost effective load balancing solution.”

Not convinced of the ROI it would achieve from load balancing products within market leading virtualisation suites like Citrix, Bridgwater chose to investigate alternatives. “The cost of some load balancing solutions meant that it would have been cheaper to upgrade our server infrastructure and incorporate a ‘cushion’ of capacity than pay for a load balancer that would efficiently manage desktop provisioning from our existing server resources,” said Foster. “But by surveying the market we realised there were far simpler, easier and more cost effective ways of doing this.”

Bridgwater chose to use 2X Load Balancer working in harmony with Microsoft’s own load balancing tools. Users logging in to terminal servers are first connected to the Microsoft load balancing environment which selects server resources from a number of 2X Gateways. The 2X Terminal Server load balancer continually calculates the load across each server and feeds that information to the 2X Gateways in order to ensure correct selection and routing of users to the least loaded terminal server.

This simple and effective solution is invaluable for Bridgwater as Foster explains. “In the space of ten minutes we could have 500 users logging on and requiring instant classroom based access to IT resources as part of timed lessons. Effective delivery of learning now requires 99.9% success in providing access. The 2X load balancer is the critical link in ensuring that terminals are correctly mapped to server resources.”

“It has become even more critical over time as we have sought to rationalise our server infrastructure on fewer machines each provisioning many more users. Recent upgrades of 2X Load Balancer enabling the adoption of 64-bit has massively increased the potential to do so.”

Since using 2X Load Balancer Bridgwater College has been able to maintain a highly cost effective and reliable desktop IT infrastructure meeting the needs of its large concurrent user base across multiple sites. With ICT availability an essential part of the college’s outstanding performance as a learning institution, load balancing and 2X have become some of the most important aspects of its technology environment.

Because 2X is provided on a per server licensing model compared to the per user licensing of most load balancing solutions it provides scalability at a far lower cost. This has enabled Bridgwater to achieve an impressive ROI against the cost of increasing its server infrastructure and would not have been possible with competing load balancing solutions.

2X’s ease of use and simple rapid deployment makes it very simple for IT managers to install and operate. For Bridgwater this meant that it could start realising the benefits of the product immediately and did not have to employ significant overhead to manage the system.

Bridgwater’s success with 2X at the core of its server based computing environment were proven by its recent analysis of converting desktops from thin clients to PCs. Foster comments, “with 2X in place and able to optimise load balancing across our server resources we have saved significantly.  2X will remain at the core of our ICT delivery well into the future.”

Reviews

Session Management with 2X LoadBalancer - Thomas Koetzing of the popular SBC-Specialist and IT-Consultant site thomaskoetzing.de reviewed 2X LoadBalancer stating, "2X LoadBalancer is a fast and easy to deploy solution for load balancing RDP/ICA sessions. The RDP over SSL support is simple to configure, no client configuration and no need to buy a public certificate but you have to think about the security risk. The new resource Monitor rounds up the product with an E-mail alerting system where custom thresholds can be set." Read the full review

Thomaskoetzing.de, May 2006

2X LoadBalancer - a great value - Michael Viehweg, writing for Mike-Tech.com describes 2X LoadBalancer as "all you could ask for in an add-on load balancing solution." The reviewer goes on to note that 2X LoadBalncer is, "Just about everything that 'out of the box' Terminal Services is missing related to load balancing. 2X can make Microsoft Terminal Services do things previously only done by an expensive application such as Citrix." Read the full review

Mike-Tech.com, April 2006

Gold award - Michel Roth, writing for MSTerminalServices.org awarded 2X LoadBalancer the Gold award for excellence and dependability. The reviewer states, "2X LoadBalancer does what its name implies and more. The product installation and configuration is easy and intuitive. Performance of the whole (SSL) load balancing mechanism is very good. I was particularly impressed with the SSL component of the product." Read the full review

MSTerminalServices.org, February 2006

Testimonials

As a fittings and values manufacturer, Spears Manufacturing depends on meeting extremely tight deadlines with its customers. To assist in making logistical operations and planning as painless as possible, the company anticipated storing all critical data in a central server farm, moving from a standalone desktop model to maintaining server-based network folders, with uninterrupted access provided to all employees. Users would then be able to access emails and documents stored on the network folders from any location, with network managers having the ability to change folder access permissions based on users’ status. The solution would also allow users to use Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and AS400 accounting software remotely, publishing these and other selected apps and terminal server desktops to thin client devices. Read the full case study.

Jack Saponjian
IT Manager
Spears Manufacturing
USA
http://www.spearsmfg.com/

Scope, the Australian supporter of the disabled, has chosen a 2X solution to support its application publishing needs in its care facilities. As the largest provider of disabled services in Victoria, Australia, Scope serves between 6,000 and 7,000 disabled adults and children with over 80 care facilities throughout the province. The organization was faced with the challenge of consistently providing desktop application access to their 1,200 employees, using products varied as Microsoft Office Applications and Goldcare, a care management ERP system. Read the full case study.

Mike Janic,
Managing Director
SoNET
Australia
http://www.sonet.com.au/

As a solution to Opera Australia’s network problems, Grant investigated load balancing solutions and eventually settled upon the 2X LoadBalancer, initially choosing it because of its low cost compared to other load balancing solutions. Grant installed the 2X LoadBalancer to six of his seven 32-bit terminal servers, leaving one server as a backup. All servers use Windows 2003 R2, without active virtualization platforms. Microsoft Terminal Services is still used as a partial solution, but is heavily supported by the 2X LoadBalancer, which Grant explains has helped convert very long wait times to "virtually nothing." Read the full case study.

Grant Cresswell
IT Manager
Opera Australia
Australia
http://www.opera-australia.org.au/

Education ICT service supporting 90,000 users chooses 2X Software to ensure network availability

Cambridgeshire Education ICT makes IT services available for up to 70,000 students in Cambridgeshire Schools and 20,000 staff/Governors across the county - including secure remote access for around 17,000 staff and students. This huge operation requires not only a major terminal server farm, but robust systems to manage and balance the load to ensure maximum uptime and consistent access to email, video conferencing and management systems 24/7. Read the full case study.

Cambridgeshire Education ICT
http://www.ict.ccceducation.net/

"2X has given us a more flexible solution that offered several benefits. We no longer need session directory and therefore do not need to invest in Enterprise servers. The load balancing in 2X is much more efficient than NLB. We found the cost reduction in Microsoft Licenses more than offset the cost of the 2X product. In addition, a user now has fewer mouse clicks to get to their application, as the application appears to launch locally from their own desktop. When they reconnect they see a performance improvement also, and we see improved performance on the servers. We also no longer have users confused as to which desktop they were seeing, as the termserver desktop is not visible. It also allows us to restrict applications to certain security groups, whereas before 2X, anything that was in the start menu was available to all."

Mike Regan MCSE,
Senior Network Analyst
Firelands Regional Medical Center
USA
http://www.firelands.com/

"We were looking for a solution that would allow us to utilize multiple Terminal Servers in a load balanced scenario. The solution needed to provide some redundancy as well as being cost effective. A Google search brought 2X LoadBalancer for Terminal Services/Citrix to our attention and I thought for sure it was too good to be true! We anticipated compatibility\stability issues due to our mixed environment of Windows 2000\2003 Std & Adv Terminal Servers. To my surprise we have had no issues with our 2X LoadBalancer terminal server farm. We have also implemented the 2X gateway to proxy in our external partners. The product runs without being noticed... and very easy to maintain and setup. We wanted a solution that was transparent to the end user with no additional client software to install. 2X LoadBalancer has allowed us to meet all of our objectives."

Pete Thoma
Manager, IT Operations
Travelex
USA
http://www.travelex.com

"The 2X LoadBalancer was the ideal solution for our Terminal Server environment. It was easy to set up and has been doing a great job of load balancing based off hardware resources."

Charles Fisher
Senior LAN System Administrator
Lord & Taylor, LLC.
USA
http://www.lordandtaylor.com

"After testing different brands of software to load balance our Microsoft terminal servers, it was clear only one company had taken the time to properly develop a working solution; 2X. The install was straightforward, and the results as described in the install manual. I had two questions that were answered within an hour by Tech Support. Within 3 hours I had 6 Terminal servers fully load balanced, with the parameters I wanted, transparent to the users logging in to the system. This is no basic “round robin” balancing, but an actual intelligent process based on what my systems are doing. I also asked them what would happen in the near future when I virtualize my terminal servers; I was assured 2X that works hand in hand with VMWare ESX server; another reason for our purchase."

Gregory J. Ritz
IT Hardware Manager
Pressler & Pressler, LLP
Parsippany, New Jersey
USA
http://www.pressler-pressler.com

"Here at Rona we have a mix of RDP and ICA thin clients spread across 4 provinces that connect to our growing farm of Terminal Servers. We wanted a load balancing solution that could transparently handle both protocols, was easy to install, and easy to maintain. The feature-set of 2X Loadbalancer as described on their website was impressive. It offered us a solution that included everything we needed, without the cumbersome options and expensive pre-requisites used in alternatives by the ‘big’ names.

Installation and configuration was a very simple process. Adding our farm of servers, setting up session reconnection and load balancing options and even configuring the redundant Loadbalancer server was a painless process. Since installing 2X Loadbalancer over a year ago we have had zero downtime on that server, with no Gateway-related interruptions in service or performance for any of our users. It just works. With extremely high reliability and stability, ease of installation and a very cost-effective and flexible licensing/pricing scheme I have no reservations about recommending 2X Loadbalancer as an effective solution for resource-based loadbalancing of any Terminal Server farm."

Adrian Hagan
System Administrator
Rona Inc.
Surrey, BC Canada
http://www.rona.ca

"We needed a load balancing solution for our terminal server farm that was easy to use and manage. 2x was the correct choice for us. The installation and configuration was very straightforward and the functionality second to none without hurting our budget. We now have the ability to manage our server downtime without creating downtime for our users. I would recommend 2x to anyone that is looking for a better solution to manage there terminal servers."

Tommie Stewart
Sr Systems Administrator, IT
AutoZone, Inc.
USA
http://www.autozone.com

Doorway is using 2X LoadBalancer to simplify deploying Remote Desktops to our end users internally and over the internet.
The application itself is very easy to install, set up, and administer. Using the LoadBalancer we have been able to completely discontinue using Citrix in our environment, which makes ROI of this product very good.

Version 5 supports grouping of servers, which makes dividing our server farms much easier. Also for testing purposes, it’s very easy to split a farm, so that testing can be done without interfering with a production farm. The new features of 2X LoadBalancer Version 5 makes administering our thousands of users really simple.  We highly recommend this product.

Jørn M. Stoveland
IT-Manager
Doorway as,
Norway
http://www.doorway.no/Nyheter-fra-Doorway

"2X LoadBalancer allows us to work smarter, not harder. It was simple, and did exactly what I needed it to do... And I would wager it works better than the Microsoft product."

Matthew Johnson
I.S. Analyst / Trainer
Fisher Titus Medical Center
Norwalk, Ohio
USA
http://www.ftmc.com

"We were looking for a solution that would allow us to utilize multiple Terminal Servers in a load balanced scenario. The solution needed to provide some basic redundancy as well as being cost effective.

We first evaluated Windows 2000 Server Advanced and utilized the load balancing feature of the operating system. We found the solution to be very expensive and "chatty". As our farm grew the cost to continue deploying Advanced Server strictly for load balancing could not be justified.

I stumbled onto 2X LoadBalancer for Terminal Services/Citrix and thought for sure the item was too good to be true! We anticipated stability issues or perhaps that it wouldn't scale beyond a moderate amount of servers. To my surprise we have had no issues with our farm that we would hold 2X LoadBalancer responsible for. The product runs without being noticed... and that is what we were looking for. We wanted a solution that was transparent to the end user. 2X LoadBalancer has allowed us to meet that objective.

I strongly recommend this solution to any administrator that is evaluating the big "C" as a very viable alternative from the perspective of load balancing and redundancy."

Austin Henderson
Network Services Manager
FirstFleet, Inc.
Murfreesboro, TN,
USA
http://www.firstfleetinc.com/

"Our company in the last few years has moved to Terminal Servers for use with our Production Systems. How to manage Load Balancing was the BIG question. After looking at all available products and solutions, I feel we made the right choice with the 2X LoadBalancer Solution. With 2X LoadBalancer, our time is not wasted on managing 1,000's of user connections and 100's of RDP sessions. In the future as our company grows and server counts rise, we'll continue to rely on the great products that 2X has to offer."

Reynaldo M. Tabares
Assistant Vice President
FNF Pacific Northwest-IT Manager,
USA
http://www.fnf.com