Setting up EP in NLB Cluster
Thanks to the EP test team , here are the steps to setup Enterprise Portal in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 on a NLB cluster.
1. Setting up the Virtual IP and host header name
a. Connect to the domain controller of the domain (DMZDC) that the NLB will reside in, and open Administrative Tools >DNS
i. Expand Forward Lookup Zones and then expand the domain (i.e. axdmz.dynamics.lab)
1. Right click in the right pane and select New Host (A)
2. Add the name of the web site header ( virtual machine name i.e. dynamics) and the front facing (virtual) IP address of the NLB farm. It should be in the same virtual LAN with IIS servers.
3. Click Add Host and Done
b. Connect to each server in the farm to configure Network Load Balancing. (DMZSQL and DMZIIS)
i. On each server, open the hosts file in (%winDrive%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) , and add the heartbeat NIC IP and FQDN (machineName.domain) of all other IIS servers in the farm to the hosts file.
ii. Open the heartbeat NIC properties, go to TCP/IP, choose properties, click advanced, and on the first tab under advanced, add the heartbeat NIC IP address
, subnet mask and no default gateway.
iii. Open the Front Facing Network properties and check Network Load Balancing. Select Network Load Balancing and go to properties. For cluster parameters, this will be the same on every machine, this will be the actual front facing (virtual) IP address that is shared amongst all servers in the web farm. Select the properties and enter the front facing (virtual) IP address of the NLB farm. Enter the subnet mask of the other machines. Enter full internet name (www.dynamics.com)
iv. For host parameters, this will be the actual IP address of each machine. The priority of each machine will be different though. The admin will be 1, and then increase for each machine in the farm as they are configured, i.e. 2,3, 4. Enter the subnet mask of the other machines. Click OK.
v. Select TCP\IP properties and select Advanced. Click Add and enter the the front facing (virtual) IP address of the NLB farm. and enter the subnet mask.
c. After configuration is complete on each machine you can open the Network Load Balancing Manager on the admin server.
i. In Menu Click Cluster, Connect to Existing and input the NLB IP address and click connect.All machines in the farm should show in the configuration.
2. Install SharePoint on the Farm Admin IIS Server ( one of the IIS Server where EP will be installed and additionally where SharePoint Central admin will be installed)
a. Run SharePoint installer on the IIS server that will be your farm admin.
b. Accept the license agreement and choose advanced install.
c. Select Web Front End and click Install Now.
d. When install has finished, run the SharePoint Products & Technologies Configuration Wizard.
e. Click next on the first screen.
f. On the second screen select “No, I want to create a new server farm”.
g. Enter your database server name and credentials.
h. Select all defaults until the configuration wizard completes.
i. Close the SharePoint Central Administration page when it opens.
3. Install SharePoint on all servers that will be part of the web farm.
a. All the steps are the same as the admin server, except connecting to a server farm. You want to connect to an existing farm.
b. Enter the name of the database server and choose retrieve database names, after retrieval select the correct Share_Point Config database.
4. Create a Web Application on the Farm Admin server
a. Open the Central administration page on the Farm Admin server and go to the Application Management tab.
i. Select Create A New Web Application
ii. Create the SharePoint – 80 Web Application
1. Under header: enter the website header name (i.e. dynamics)
2. Under the Load Balanced URL section, enter the actual name of the website (i.e. http://dynamics)
3. Do not configure the Service Credentials, choose predefined.
4. Click okay to create the web application.
5. Deploy EP on all servers, but do not use the create website option.
i. Run EP deployment on all servers in the farm other than the farmadmin machine and uncheck configure SharePoint and uncheck create website options.
ii. After installation is complete on all servers , run EP deployment on the faradmin server, and check SharePoint and create the website.
1. You can also choose to create EP site later. In that case just uncheck the create web site option”and later Run Central SharePoint admin from the server and create a new site collection and create the EP site.Iisreset /noforce needs to be run on every server in the farm when using this option.
