Deploy Bold BI using Load Balancer with N Windows Servers

Learn how to Deploy Bold BI using the Network Load Balancer with N number of Windows Servers using the Azure Blob.

Prerequisites

1. Storage account for the blob storage in the azure cloud service.
2. The N Windows server machines for deploying the Bold BI instance.
3. One Windows server machine for configuring the Load balancer.

Create azure blob in the azure cloud service

Follow these steps to create an azure blob container.

1. Go to the azure portal, search storage account in the search bar, and select storage account. Refer here for how to create a storage account in azure portal.
   
2. Then, click the Create icon.
   
3. Fill in the necessary details and then click review and create.
   
4. Go to your created storage account and click on the container.
   
5. Select blob from the drop-down and click create.
   
6. Find the created Blob inside the container.
   
   

Deploy Bold BI in any one of the machine

1. After providing the administrative details, you must select the advanced option. Please refer here for instructions on how to configure the startup.
   
   
2. Select advanced and enter your DB details on the next page.
   
3. Then, select azure blob.
   

Configure startup with azure blob

Follow these steps to configure start up page with azure blob.

1. Provide the blob details on the next page.
   
2. Find the access key inside your created storage account. Click the show icon and copy the Access key.
   
3. 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 set the port to 80.
   
4. Install or deploy Bold BI on the remaining N-1 machines and point to port 80. However, do not perform any startup configuration on these machines. Instead, copy the configuration folder from the default installation location (installeddrive\BoldServices\app_data) on machine 1 and replace it in the same location on the other machines.
   
5. Restart your sites in the IIS manager for the machines where the files were replaced. Then, open Bold BI in a private window and verify that the setup works properly by adding a resource.

Configure Network Load Balancer

Follow these steps to configure a Network Load Balancer on a Windows server machine.

1. Open the Server Manager. Select Add Role and Features.
   
2. Click on the Before You Begin page, select the role-based and feature-based installation, and then click Next.
   
3. Choose a server from the server pool on which you would like to install the Network Load Balancing feature, and then click Next.
   
4. On the Select Server Roles page, click Next and select the Network Load Balancing checkbox.
   
5. A new window will pop up; click on Add Features to include the required features and management tools for Network Load Balancing to work correctly.
   
6. Make sure the NLB feature is selected, then click Next. Click on the Install button to start the installation process.
   
7. Close the window once the installation is completed.

Configure Network Load Balancer Cluster

Follow these steps to configure a Network Load Balancer cluster.

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,Click New Cluster.
   

3. On the New Cluster window, type the IP address or name of Machine 1 in the Host field and then click Connect and Verify that the Interface name is listed and proceed to next.
   

4. On the next page (Host Parameters page), adjust the priority value as needed. Also, make sure that the default status is set to Started. When you are ready, click on Next.
   

5. On the 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. Choose an NLB cluster operation mode and specify the FQDN name for the NLB cluster in the Full Internet name field. Then click Next.
   

8. On the Port Rules page, select the existing port rule and click Edit.
   

9. Type port range from 80 to 80 (As you only want port number 80 for the IIS NLB cluster). Select Affinity mode to none and click OK.
   

   

10. Click Add to add a new rule for 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. Verify that the second NLB node has been successfully added. The icon color should be displaying green.

14. Repeat the same process for adding the remaining machines in NLB, then open the web browser and type the NLB cluster IP address in the address bar.