Deploy Bold BI behind a load balancer using N Windows Servers.

This session explains how to deploy Bold BI behind a Network Load Balancer with N number of Windows Servers using Azure Blob Storage.

Prerequisites

1. Azure Storage account for creating Blob Container.
2. N Windows Servers with static IP on same VNET and Subnet (1 for Balancer and others for Bold BI deployment).

Azure Blob Storage Creation

Follow these steps to create an azure blob container.

1. Create a azure storage account by following this documentation.
2. Create a Blob container by following this documentation.

Install Required Windows Features

Follow the steps below to install the required Windows feature on both the NLB server and other servers as well.

1. Go to server manager and click Add Roles and Features.
   
   
2. Click Next.
   
   
3. Select Role based or feature based installation and click Next.
   
   
4. Select select a server from server pool and choose the server pool and click Next.
   
   
5. Add Active Directory Domain Service and DNS service and click Next.
   
   
6. Add Network Load Balancing Service and click Next.
   
   
7. Then click install and it will take some time to complete the installation.

Deploy Bold BI in Windows Servers

Follow the steps below to configure Bold BI on Windows servers, excluding the NLB server.

1. Deploy a Bold BI application in Windows server by following this documentation.
2. After giving the admin details, you need to select the advanced option. Refer here for configure the start up using Advanced mode.
   
   
3. Setup the application using azure Blob storage by following this documentation.
4. After configuring Bold BI, stop the default site, go to the Bold BI Enterprise Edition site bindings in the IIS manager, remove the localhost, and put 80 in the port.
   
   
5. Install or deploy Bold BI in other remaining N-1 machines and point to 80 port. However, we should not do any startup configuration in these machines and copy the configuration folder from the default installation location installeddrive\BoldServices\app_data in machine 1 and replace it in the other machines in the same location.
   
   
6. Restart your sites in the IIS manager for the files replaced machines and open Bold BI in a private window. Verify that the setup works properly by adding a resource.

Domain Controller Creation

To configure a domain controller in an NLB server and add other servers to that domain controller, follow the steps below.

1. After the installation mentioned above, it will display a pop-up warning trigger that says add domain.
   
   
2. Select the Add New and give the domain name and click Next.
   
   
3. Enter the strong password for the domain and click Next.
   
   
4. Click Next.
   
   
5. Click Next.
   
   
6. Then click Install and it will start auto-restart.
   
   
7. Now domain controller is installed in the NLB server, and we need to add the other Machines in this domain controller.
8. Add the other servers in the created domain controller by following this document.

Network Load Balancer Creation and Mapping

Follow these steps to configure a Network Load Balancer cluster and add a host.

1. On the Server Manager console of the member server, click Tools and select Network Load Balancing Manager.
   
   
2. Right-click Network Load Balancing Clusters and choose the New option.
   
   
3. On the New Cluster window, type the IP address or name of Machine1 in the Host field and then click Connect. Verify that the Interface name is listed and proceed to the next step.
   
   
4. On the next page(Host Parameters page), adjust the priority value as per need. Also, ensure that the default status has been set as Started. When you are ready, click on Next.
   
   
5. Cluster IP Addresses page, click Add to add a new Cluster IP address.
   
   
6. Specify a Cluster IP Address and click OK
   
   
   
   > NOTE: This IP address is a new NLB Cluster virtual IP address on which the host service will run.
7. Select an NLB cluster operation mode. You can also specify the FQDN name for the NLB cluster in the Full Internet name field and click Next.
   
   
8. In the Port Rules page, select the existing port rule and click Edit.
   
   
9. Type the port range as 80 to 80 (as you only want port number 80 for the IIS NLB cluster). Select the affinity mode as none and click OK.
   
   
10. Click Add to add a new rule for the port number 443 using the same steps.
    
    
11. Once the port range is configured, click Finish.
    
    
12. Wait until the machine is added successfully. The icon color of the added NLB node should be displaying green.
    
    
13. Ensure that the second NLB node has been successfully added by checking if the icon color is showing green.
14. Repeat the aforementioned steps to add the remaining machines in NLB. Afterwards, proceed to open the web browser and enter the NLB cluster IP address in the address bar.

Conclusion

Currently, Bold BI has been implemented behind an NLB server, evenly distributing network traffic among all instances. Moreover, in the event of one server’s failure, the other server will continue to function seamlessly without any interruptions.

Additional References

1. How to Deploy Bold BI on EKS Using Application Load Balancer and ACM SSL Certificate with Helm
3. Run the Bold BI application as multiple instances behind a load balancer using the same EFS volume