Microsoft KB Archive/324092

= HOW TO: Set Up Multi-Host Sites =

Article ID: 324092

Article Last Modified on 10/30/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0

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This article was previously published under Q324092



IN THIS TASK
SUMMARY
 * How to Redirect To Another Host
 * How to Configure Load Balancing in a Windows 2000 Cluster

REFERENCES



SUMMARY
To improve the overall performance of your Web site, you can spread the load across several servers. This article explains how to use redirection and network load balancing to help improve performance.

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How to Redirect to Another Host
Redirection points the browser to an another location or host. If you use standard directories to divide your Web site into specific sections, you can redirect browsers to another host. This spreads the server load over a number of computers, even though the Web site appears to be part of the same domain.

For example, you might decide to redirect www.microsoft.com/downloads to the downloads.microsoft.com server.

On an Apache server, the Redirect directive is used to control this redirection. In Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), you must manually configure the directory.

First, you must configure the redirection on the primary host (www. .com) to point to the new host for that section of the Web site. To do this, follow these steps:
 * 1) Log on to the Web server as Administrator.
 * 2) Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
 * 3) Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Internet Services Manager.
 * 4) Right-click the Web site or a folder in the Web site, and then point to Open.
 * 5) Right-click the directory tree, and then point to New Folder.
 * 6) Return to Internet Services Manager.
 * 7) Right-click the folder that you just created, and then point to Properties.
 * 8) Switch to the Directory panel.
 * 9) Click A redirection to a URL.
 * 10) To redirect the directory to another URL, click The exact URL entered above, and then type the full URL to the new site in the Redirect to box.
 * 11) Click OK to save the changes that you made.

Now proceed to the host for the computer. Configure the host's name, IP address, and networking details to match those in the Domain Name System (DNS) and those used in the redirection operation on the primary host.

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How to Configure Load Balancing in a Windows 2000 Cluster
The Windows 2000 clustering facility is available only in Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter. By using the clustering facility, you can intelligently balance the load across a number of servers. The CPU and network load on each computer configured in the cluster are monitored, and requests are redirected to the least-busy computer. Note that the IP address for the Web site points to the cluster. The cluster then distributes the actual request to the correct computer.

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