Intergraph WebScale User Manual

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Based on technology from Valence™ Research, Inc.

User’s Guide

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Huntsville, AL

WebScale™ User’s Guide

Version 2.1

©1998 by Intergraph Computer Systems, Inc.
Portions ©1998 by Valence™ Research, Inc.

This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without written permission from Intergraph Computer Systems,
Inc.

Specifications are subject to change without notice.

WebScale is a trademark of Intergraph Computer Systems, Inc.
Convoy Cluster and Valence are trademarks of Valence Research, Inc.
Windows NT is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Please direct all correspondence to:

Intergraph Computer Systems, Inc.
Huntsville, Alabama 35894-0001

U.S.A.
1-800-345-4856
[e-mail]

WELCOME TO WEBSCALE™

Thank you for selecting WebScale™ based on technology from Valence™ Research,
Inc. By clustering two or more Windows NT computers with WebScale, you will
dramatically enhance the availability of your Internet server applications, such as World
Wide Web, proxy, DNS, and FTP servers. At the same time, WebScale can help you to
scale your server’s performance to keep up with the ever-increasing demands of your
Internet-based clients. Best of all, WebScale provides a cost-effective solution that
works with all of your Internet-based services.

This User’s Guide explains what WebScale does and how it works to deliver high

availability and scalability for your Internet server applications. Step-by-step
instructions for installing and using WebScale help you to get your WebScale cluster up
and running quickly and easily. This guide also explains how to obtain technical
support if you have problems.

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WELCOME TO WEBSCALE™ I

TABLE OF CONTENTS II
WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 21

REMOVAL OF SINGLE NIC LIMITATIONS 1
R

EMOTE CLUSTER CONTROL 2

E

NHANCED SESSION SUPPORT 2

P

ERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS 2

INTRODUCTION 4

ADVANTAGES OF USING WEBSCALE 5

VERVIEW OF WEBSCALE’S SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION 7

O

ATABASE ACCESS WITHIN LOAD BALANCED SERVER APPLICATIONS 8

D

INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION 9

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 9
S

INGLE NETWORK INT ERFACE CARD LIMITATIONS 10

Q

UICK START GUIDE FOR WINDOWS NT EXPERTS 10

I

NSTALLATION 13

S

ETUP: CONFIGURING WEBSCALE’S PARAMETERS 19

S

ETTING UP THE WINDOWS NT BINDINGS 35

NSTALLING SOFTWARE UPGRADES 46

I
D

ISABLING AND REMOVING WEBSCALE 47

EXECUTION AND CONTROL 49

THEORY OF OPERATION 49
C

LUSTER CONTROL 54

E

RROR DETECTION AND HANDLING 59
VENT LOGGING 60

E

TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE 64
GLOSSARY OF TERMS 71
INDEX 75

ii

WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 2

WebScale™ Version 2, has exciting new features that make WebScale easier to install
and use. This version also incorporates several performance enhancements that take full
advantage of the latest, pipelined network drivers and adapter cards and ensure smooth
failover and failback behavior. The key changes are outlined in the following
subsections.

Removal of Single NIC Limitations

By default, WebScale now directs network traffic to the cluster NIC’s using a multicast
cluster MAC address instead of by using a non-multicast cluster MAC address. The
WebScale driver no longer instructs the NIC driver (via the Windows NT Registry) to
load the cluster MAC address into the NIC card at system startup. This has several
important benefits:

• Cluster hosts do not need two NIC cards to allow them to communicate with each

other. One cluster NIC can be used on each cluster host, and both the cluster’s
primary IP address and the dedicated IP address can be bound to this card via
WebScale.

• Cluster hosts now avoid the additional networking overhead associated with the

use of a single NIC card. In previous versions, all cluster hosts would receive
network traffic from outside the cluster that was intended for a particular host.
This overhead is now removed.

• WebScale now works properly with Ethernet switches, which require that all

switch ports have unique MAC addresses.

• WebScale now works with network adapter cards that do not allow their MAC

addresses to be changed. (Only a few, low-end cards have this limitation.)

• WebScale’s internal (one per second) messages now introduce less network

overhead on the subnet since only the cluster hosts receive them. They were
previously broadcast to all hosts.

WebScale automatically handles the resolution of the cluster IP address to its associated
multicast cluster MAC address by the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). However,
the use of a multicast MAC address may not be supported by the ARP implementation
on some routers. In this case, it is necessary to create a static ARP entry within the
router.

For backward compatibility, WebScale supports non-multicast cluster IP addresses that
were used in previous versions. The WebScale Setup dialog lets you select between
multicast and non-multicast addressing. Starting with version 2.1, you can use a unicast
MAC address with switches.

WebScale™ User’s Guide

Also new with version 2.1, WebScale now automatically generates the cluster MAC

address based on the cluster’s primary IP address. This simplifies installation and lets
you put multiple WebScale clusters on the same subnet without manually changing the
MAC address. When configuring your router, you can use the new webscale

ip2mac command to conveniently list the MAC address used for a given cluster IP
address.

Remote Cluster Control

WebScale’s cluster control program (webscale.exe) has been enhanced to let you start,
stop, and query the cluster from any networked Windows NT system. You can control
all cluster hosts with one command, or you can control them individually. The control
program has full password protection to prevent unauthorized access. When executed
on the cluster hosts, the control program operates in the same manner as it did in
previous versions.

Starting with version 2.1, you can now instruct WebScale to complete all outstanding
connections prior removing a host from the cluster or disabling traffic handling for port
rules using the webscale drainstop and webscale drain <port> commands.
This avoids disrupting service to clients when these cluster set changes need to be made.

Enhanced Session Support

Support for client sessions has been enhanced in version 2. If a server application (such
as a web server) maintains state information about a client session that spans multiple
TCP connections, it is important that all TCP connections for this client be directed to
the same cluster host. In previous versions of WebScale, you could optionally force this
behavior by setting the WebScale registry parameter ScaleSingleClient to 0. Otherwise,
WebScale would load balance TCP connections from a single client across the cluster to
maximize performance. Starting with version 2, you can invoke support for client
sessions, called client affinity, individually for each port range.

In addition, version 2 lets you optionally modify WebScale’s session support to direct
all client requests from a TCP/IP Class C address range to a single cluster host. This
feature ensures that clients which use multiple proxy servers to access the cluster will
have their TCP connections directed to the same cluster host. The use of multiple proxy
servers at the client’s site causes requests from a single client to appear to originate
from different systems. Assuming that all of the client’s proxy servers are located
within the same 256 host Class C address range, you can now ensure that client sessions
are properly handled with minimum impact on load distribution among the cluster hosts.

Performance Enhancements

Version 2 incorporates numerous internal performance enhancements to further
streamline WebScale’s actions and ensure that WebScale takes full advantage of the

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

latest NDIS device drivers and NIC hardware. WebScale fully pipelines all packet
reception and transmission to the maximum extent supported by NDIS drivers and
protocol stacks. Also, WebScale’s load balancing mechanisms have been refined to

ensure the smoothest possible load transfers when cluster hosts enter and exit the cluster
and during recovery from subnet conditions.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

INTRODUCTION

WebScale™ Software is an innovative software product that enhances the availability
and scalability of Internet server applications, such as web servers, FTP servers, and
other mission-critical applications. A single Windows NT computer can only provide a
limited level of reliability and scalable performance. However, by combining the
resources of two or more Windows NT computers into a single cluster, WebScale
cluster can deliver the reliability and performance that web servers and other mission
critical applications need. The following diagram depicts a cluster with four host
computers, or servers, within the cluster:

Each host runs a separate copy of the desired server applications, such as web servers,
FTP, telnet, email, etc. For some services, such as web servers, a copy of the
application runs on all hosts within the cluster, and WebScale load-balances the
workload between them. For other services, such as email, only one copy of the service
handles the workload within the cluster. Instead of load balancing these services,
WebScale allows the network traffic to flow to one host, and it moves the traffic to
another host in case of failure.

WebScale clusters together several computers running server applications that use the
TCP/IP networking protocol. WebScale allows all of the machines in the cluster to be
addressed by the same set of cluster IP addresses (while maintaining their existing
addressability using unique, dedicated IP addresses). WebScale distributes incoming
client requests in the form of TCP/IP traffic across the hosts.

To scale server performance WebScale can load-balance the incoming TCP/IP traffic

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

across all the hosts in the cluster. In this case, a copy of the server application runs on
all of the load-balanced hosts, and the load is partitioned among the hosts; the load
percentage to be handled by each host can be tailored as necessary. Hosts can be
dynamically added to the cluster as necessary to handle increased load. WebScale can
also direct all traffic to a designated single host, called the default host.

WebScale manages the TCP/IP traffic as necessary to maintain high availability for
server applications. When a host fails or goes offline, WebScale automatically
reconfigures the cluster to direct client requests to the remaining computers. For load­balanced applications, the load is automatically redistributed among the surviving
computers. Applications with a single server have their traffic redirected to a specific
host. Connections to the failed or offline host are lost. Once the necessary maintenance
is completed, the offline computer can transparently rejoin the cluster and regain its
share of the workload.

Advantages of Using WebScale

WebScale installs as a standard Windows NT networking driver on two or more
Ethernet or FDDI connected computers. Once installed, it operates in a fully
transparent manner to both server applications and to TCP/IP clients worldwide.

WebScale’s simple and elegant approach to clustering server applications lets users
employ off-the-shelf software components, such as existing WWW, FTP, or proxy
servers and other popular Internet applications. WebScale enhances fault-tolerance and
scales performance transparently to the TCP/IP protocol, to server applications, and to
clients.

WebScale gives the user flexible, fine-grained control over its operations. It lets the
system administrator configure load balanced (also called multi-server) and single­server network traffic handling parameters for individual TCP/UDP ports and for
sequential groups of ports (called port ranges). In addition, individual servers can be
commanded to dynamically (i.e., without re-booting the server) leave and join the
cluster by issuing simple commands. Cluster parameters also can be modified without
bringing down the cluster.

WebScale’s approach to load balancing TCP/IP connections is superior to using a
round-robin domain name server (DNS) because:

• the same server IP addresses are used across the cluster,

• a round-robin DNS does not provide fault tolerance (it blindly directs traffic to

failed servers),

• WebScale’s load balancing has finer granularity (per-client request vs. per-DNS

query from the client),

• each client benefits from WebScale’s load balancing since its requests are

distributed across the cluster,

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

• WebScale allows finer control over the load distribution among the servers by

designating load percentages to be assigned for the servers (the next version of
WebScale will provide dynamic load balancing according to the measured server
load).

WebScale’s implementation in software that is distributed across the cluster hosts has
several advantages over the use of centralized, hardware-based solutions for distributing
TCP/IP requests within a cluster. First, it avoids introducing a single point of failure
that can disrupt operations. Second, WebScale’s performance tracks the constantly
improving performance of the systems on which it runs. Hardware-based solutions
have fixed performance limits with limited lifetimes.

WebScale’s fully distributed architecture also has advantages in comparison to other
software solutions, which redirect incoming IP packets to load balance traffic among the
cluster hosts. WebScale imposes significantly less overhead because it does not modify
and retransmit packets. It also can respond faster to system outages and rebalance the
load within a few seconds.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

Overview of WebScale’s Software Configuration

WebScale runs as a Windows NT networking driver and its operations are transparent to
the TCP/IP networking stack. The above diagram shows the relationship between
WebScale and the other software components in a typical configuration of a WebScale
Server:

To ensure maximum network performance, WebScale normally uses a second network
interface card (NIC) to handle cluster traffic, while other network traffic to the server
goes through a separate NIC. However, a second network card is not required.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

Database Access within Load balanced Server Applications

Some server applications access a database that is updated by client requests. When
these applications are load balanced in the cluster, these updates need to be properly
synchronized. Each server can use independent copies of databases residing within
their individual servers, which are merged offline as necessary. Alternatively, the
clustered servers can share access to a separate, networked database server, as shown in
the diagram below. A combination of these approaches can also be used. For example,
web pages can be replicated among all clustered servers to ensure fast access and
complete fault tolerance. However, database requests should be forwarded to a shared
database server to synchronize updates from multiple web servers. Some mission­critical applications may require the use of highly available database engines to ensure
complete fault tolerance for the service. Over the next five years, clustered database
software will be deployed to deliver highly available and scalable database access
within the cluster.

For more information on how WebScale achieves fault-tolerance and scalability, please
consult the section Theory of Operation.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION

To install and fully configure WebScale for use, please follow the instructions in the
following sections for all Windows NT systems that you plan to use in the cluster.

System Requirements

Quick Start Guide

Installation

Setup

Setting Windows NT
Bindings

Installing Software
Upgrades

Disabling and Removing

Hardware and software requirements for
running WebScale

Abbreviated installation instr uctio ns for
Windows NT experts

How to obtain and install WebScale on your
Windows NT syste m

Detailed, step-by-step instructions for setting

WebScale’s parameters
Detailed, step-by-step instructions for setting

the correct Windows NT bindings
How to install upgrades to your WebScale

How to temporarily disable or to remove
WebScale

System Requirements

WebScale is designed to work as a standard networking device driver under the
Windows NT 4.0 Server or Workstation operating system. Since WebScale is designed
to provide clustering support for TCP/IP-based server applications, the Windows NT
TCP/IP protocol must be installed in order to take advantage of WebScale’s

functionality. The current version of WebScale operates on FDDI or Ethernet based
local area networks within the cluster. It has been tested on 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and
gigabit Ethernet networks with a wide variety of network adapter cards.

WebScale consumes less than 1.2MB of hard-drive space and occupies between 250KB
and 4MB of RAM during operation using the default parameters, depending on the
network load. The parameters can be modified to allow up to 15MB memory to be
used. Typical memory usage ranges between 500KB to 1MB.

For optimum cluster performance, a dedicated network interface card (NIC) should be
installed to handle cluster traffic. In this configuration, one card will carry all of the
usual networking traffic destined to the server as an individual computer on the
network, while the other one will handle the networking traffic addressed to the server
as part of WebScale cluster. If multicast cluster MAC addressing is disabled, it is still
possible to use WebScale with a single NIC in the system, but this will limit overall
performance and networking functionality within the cluster itself; please refer to the
Single network interface card limitations topic for more details.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

If you are using a router to connect your cluster to its clients, be sure that the router has
its proxy ARP support enabled. (This allows the router to map the cluster’s primary IP

address and other multi-homed addresses to the corresponding MAC address.) If your
router does not route to the cluster with proxy ARP support enabled, you also can create
a static ARP entry in the router. Cisco routers require a static ARP entry because they
do not support proxy ARP for multicast MAC addresses.

Single Network Interface Card Limitations

Note: The limitations described in this section apply only when multicast cluster MAC
address support is disabled. Starting with Version 2, a multicast cluster MAC address is
used by default for cluster operations. For backward compatibility with previous
versions, you can disable the use of multicast cluster MAC addressing in the WebScale
Setup dialog. In this case, please carefully read the limitations described below.

If you disable multicast support, you should install a dedicated network interface card
(NIC) to handle cluster traffic in order to achieve optimum performance and the full
range of networking functionality. Although it is possible to have a successful cluster
installation with only one NIC, there are two limitations to this approach:

• Computers within the cluster will not be able to communicate among themselves

with any networking protocol, not just TCP/IP. This can be a special problem if
one or more of the clustered servers also act as primary and backup domain
controllers.

• Networking traffic destined to individual servers within the cluster will generate

additional networking overhead for all machines in the cluster.

These limitations may not be important for many installations. If the computers within
the cluster are only accessed from outside the cluster (i.e., there are no intra-cluster
communications) and non-cluster communications are infrequent (for example short
nightly updates of the web server content to individual computers in the cluster), the use
of a single networking card should be sufficient. Also, it is always possible to test and
demo WebScale using a single network card prior to installing additional cards for
operational purposes.

The topic Setting Up the Windows NT Bindings contains special instructions for
setting up WebScale on computer with a single network interface card. When using a
single NIC, you later can add a second NIC later and follow the instructions in the
subsection for multiple network interface cards.

Quick Start Guide for Windows NT Experts

The following guide lets Windows NT experts quickly install and configure WebScale
for use. This guide assumes that you are familiar with installing network adapter cards
and driver software for Windows NT systems. For more detailed, step-by-step

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

instructions, please refer to the Installation section.
Before installing WebScale, be sure to read the section System Requirements.

Have the following items ready:

• The websNNN.exe file that contains the WebScale distribution. This file can be

obtained from Intergraph Computer Systems, Inc. The NNN encodes the version
number of the distribution; for example, webs10b.exe is the Beta release of
WebScale.

• The cluster’s full Internet name that you plan to use, such as, cluster.your-

company.com.

• The IP address that you plan to use for the cluster. This cluster IP address will be

used on all hosts in the cluster.

• The current IP address for each host in the cluster. This dedicated IP address is

unique to each host and is used for network traffic other than that to be serviced
by the cluster as a whole, such as, telnet sessions with individual hosts.

• (Optional) A license key from Intergraph Computer Systems. If you are

installing WebScale for evaluation purposes, no license key is needed.

• (Optional) A second network adapter card to handle the cluster’s network traffic.

You can use your existing adapter cards to run WebScale; please see the section
Single Network Interface Card Limitations. The second adapter is called
cluster adapter, and the host’s original adapter card is called the dedicated
adapter. If you have a single adapter card, it will serve both purposes.

To install and configure WebScale, please follow these steps for each host to be used in
your WebScale cluster:

æ If you are using a router to send network traffic directly to the cluster, be sure that

the router has its “proxy ARP” functionality enabled. See System
Requirements for details.

æ If you are using multiple adapter cards, install the second network adapter card.
æ Unpack the WebScale distribution by running websNNN.exe.
æ Start the Windows NT Network setup dialog.
æ Install WebScale as a new adapter; use the WebScale distribution files when

prompted for a disk. This will install two networking objects, a WebScale Virtual
NIC adapter and a WebScale Driver protocol.

⇒ When installation completes, the WebScale Setup dialog will automatically start.
(You can also run this dialog by highlighting the WebScale Virtual NIC adapter and
clicking on the Properties button.)

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

æ Fill out the requested cluster, host, and licensing information in the dialog and

click on the Apply button to make use of the features enabled by your license key.

æ Create port rules to specify how you want WebScale to handle network traffic for

specific TCP and/or UDP ports. Refer to the Port Rules section for more details.

æ Click on the OK button to complete the WebScale Setup dialog.
æ Select the Bindings tab in the Windows NT Network dialog and view the bindings

for all protocols.

æ Bind the WebScale Driver protocol to the WebScale Virtual NIC adapter and to the

cluster adapter.

æ Unbind the WebScale Driver protocol from the dedicated adapter (unless you are

using a single adapter, in which case you should leave the adapter bound).

æ Bind the TCP/IP protocol and the WINS Client protocol to the WebScale Virtual

NIC adapter.

æ Bind the TCP/IP protocol and the WINS Client protocol to the dedicated adapter

(unless you are using a single adapter, in which case you should unbind the
adapter).

æ Unbind the TCP/IP protocol and the WINS Client protocol from the cluster adapter.

It will already be unbound if you have a single adapter.

æ Move the WebScale Virtual NIC adapter below the dedicated adapter in the list of

adapters for the TCP/IP protocol and the WINS Client protocols.

æ Close the Network setup dialog.
æ Restart the computer.

After installation has been completed on all hosts in the cluster, you can control cluster
operations using the webscale.exe control program, which is described in the
Execution and Control section.

If you should need to disable the WebScale driver after installation:

æ Unbind the WebScale Driver from all hardware adapters.
æ Unbind the TCP/IP protocol and the WINS Client protocol from the WebScale

Virtual NIC adapter.

æ Bind the TCP/IP protocol and the WINS Client protocol to the hardware adapters

as desired.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

Installation

WebScale must be installed and configured on every Windows NT computer (called a
host) that will be part of a cluster. Please follow these steps to install WebScale on each
host:

Before installing WebScale, be sure to read the section System Requirements.
Have the following items ready:

• The cluster’s full Internet name that you plan to use, such as, cluster.your-

company.com.

• The IP address that you plan to use for the cluster. This cluster IP address will be

used on all hosts in the cluster.

• The current IP address for each host in the cluster. This dedicated IP address is

unique to each host and is used for network traffic other than that to be serviced
by the cluster as a whole, such as, telnet sessions with individual hosts.

• (Optional) A license key from Intergraph Computer Systems. If you are

installing WebScale for evaluation purposes, no license key is needed.

• (Optional) A second network adapter card to handle the cluster’s network traffic.

You can use your existing adapter cards to run WebScale; please see the section
Single Network Interface Card Limitations. The second adapter is called
cluster adapter, and the host’s original adapter card is called the dedicated
adapter. If you have a single adapter card, it will serve both purposes.

Note: If you are using a router to send network traffic directly to the cluster, be sure that
the router has its “proxy ARP” functionality enabled. See System Requirements for
details.

Step 1: Obtain the WebScale Distribution

WebScale is distributed as a single diskette containing compressed files. The NNN
encodes the version number of the distribution; for example, webs10b.exe is the Beta
release of WebScale.

If you download WebScale, please run the executable file on a Windows NT or
Windows 95 system to self-extract the installation files, which should be placed on a
single diskette or in a single directory on your hard drive. The websNNN.exe program
lets you specify the target path for the extracted files. It also lets you optionally run

WebScale Help after extracting the files.
Step 2 (Optional): Install a Second Network Interface Card

If you plan to use a second NIC to handle network traffic handled by the WebScale
cluster, install the card at this point. Note that you can install WebScale using your
existing NIC (subject to possible limitations described in the previous section Single
Network Interface Card Limitations) and then later add a second NIC and update
your WebScale installation.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

To install the NIC and its software driver, please follow the instructions supplied by the
hardware manufacturer. Be careful that the hardware resources needed by the card,
such as interrupt request levels (IRQ’s) and IO ports, do not interfere with those used by

the already installed NIC.

Step 3: Install the WebScale Driver

Because WebScale is a standard Windows NT networking driver, it can be installed,
configured and removed through the Network component of the Windows NT Control
Panel. Although its installation is straightforward, it should be performed by a system
administrator who is familiar with installing and managing networking software.

To run the Windows NT Network setup dialog:
æ Go to Start button on your taskbar and choose Control Panel under the Settings

entry.

æ In the Control Panel folder, double-click on the Network icon.
You can also reach Network setup dialog by right-clicking on the Network

Neighborhood icon on your desktop and then choosing Properties. The following step-
by-step instructions will guide you through the rest of the installation process:

æ Click on the Adapters tab to see the list of installed network adapters.
At this point, the following Network dialog will appear as follows:

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

WebScale is classified as a networking adapter in the Windows NT networking
component hierarchy and will be added to the list recognized by Windows NT.

æ Click on the Add button to begin installing WebScale.
Windows NT will display the Select Network Adapter dialog (see below) to show a list

of adapters supplied with Windows NT. Note that WebScale is not in this list of
adapters.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

æ Click on the Have Disk button.
The following Insert Disk dialog will appear to let you tell Windows NT where it can

find WebScale installation files.

æ Fill out the directory path to the WebScale installation files and click on the OK

button.

If you copied the WebScale installation files to a diskette, make sure that the diskette is
in your floppy drive now. If you copied the WebScale installation files to a directory on
your hard disk, then enter the path to that directory.

If Windows NT successfully finds the WebScale installation files, you should see the

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

following Select OEM Option dialog, which lets you select WebScale for installation. If
you do not see this dialog, you should re-check that you have entered the correct path to
the WebScale installation files during the previous step, that the diskette you have
placed in your floppy drive contains WebScale installation files, and that the files have
not been corrupted.

æ Click on the OK button.
Some files will be copied to your hard drive, and you will be presented with a screen

containing the license agreement. Make sure that you read and understand the
agreement; if you have any questions, please contact Intergraph Computer Systems.

æ Click on the Agree button to accept the license agreement.
By doing so, you will be bound by this agreement. If you choose not to accept the

agreement, press the Disagree button and the installation will terminate. You will need
to manually remove the WebScale Virtual NIC adapter that was just installed. To do
this, highlight the WebScale Virtual NIC adapter shown in list of adapters in the
Network dialog and click on the Remove button. For more details on removing
WebScale, please refer to the Disabling and Removing WebScale section.

After you click on the Agree button for the WebScale license agreement, you will be
presented with the WebScale Setup dialog which lets you configure your system for
cluster operations.

æ Configure your WebScale installation for cluster operations. Please refer now to

the Setup: Configuring WebScale’s Parameters section for step-by-step
instructions on configuring WebScale.

æ Click on the OK or Cancel button.
After you exit the WebScale Setup dialog, you should see WebScale Virtual NIC listed

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

among the network adapters in the Network dialog:

æ Click on the Bindings tab in the Network setup dialog.
The Windows NT network bindings let you to specify the precise relationship between

WebScale and the rest of your networking components.
æ Please refer now to the Setting Up the Windows NT Bindings topic for step-

by-step instructions on setting up these bindings.

æ Click on the Close button to exit the Network setup dialog.
You will be prompted to reboot your system at this point. The WebScale driver will

automatically load next time you start your system. You have now successfully
installed WebScale! Please refer to the topic Execution and Control for information
on controlling the WebScale during normal operations.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

Setup: Configuring WebScale’s Parameters

WebScale must be configured on each host computer within the cluster using the
WebScale Setup dialog. This dialog appears automatically during the installation
process. After installation, it can be invoked from the Network setup dialog from
Control Panel folder as follows:

æ In the Control Panel folder, double-click on the Network icon.
æ Click on the Adapters tab to see the list of installed network adapters.
æ Select WebScale Virtual NIC in the list of network adapters.
æ Click on the Properties button.

The WebScale Setup dialog can also be started by running the command

webscale setup

from the command-line prompt. This method is more restrictive and will not allow you
to change all of WebScale’s parameters.

The WebScale Setup dialog appears as follows:

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

This dialog sets parameters that are recorded in the Windows NT registry. WebScale’s
parameters are organized into four major sections, each of which is represented by a
separate box in the WebScale Setup dialog:

Cluster Parameters
Host Parameters

Licensing Information

Port Rules

To set cluster-wide parameters
To set parameters specific to each

host within the cluster
To enter the license key and see

licensing information
To set parameters that control how

cluster traffic is handled for groups
of TCP and UDP ports

Please refer to the sections for each of these areas to set their corresponding parameters.
While you are running the dialog, you can obtain a brief description of each parameter
by positioning the mouse over the parameter. You can obtain a more detailed
description by clicking on the parameter and hitting the F1 key. Use the tab key to
move between parameter fields.

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WebScale™ User’s Guide

In addition to the above parameters, the WebScale Setup dialog has three buttons that
apply to all parameters:

æ Click on the OK button to save all of the entered parameters in the registry and exit

the dialog.

æ Click on the Cancel button to exit the dialog without making any changes to the

registry that were entered in the dialog during the current session.

æ Click on the Help button to view WebScale’s on-line help information.
You can also press the Enter key to invoke the action of the highlighted button.
WebScale’s parameters are read from the Windows NT registry and applied when the

driver initializes and whenever you run the command line:

webscale reload

If cluster operations were already started, they are stopped, the parameters are reloaded,
and cluster operations are restarted. This avoids the need for you to reboot the host in
order to change most of WebScale’s parameter settings. For more information on
cluster control see the section Execution and Control.

Cluster Parameters

The Cluster Parameters section of the WebScale Setup dialog appears as follows on the
screen:

This section lets you enter information about your WebScale cluster. The parameters
include:

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