Chapter 13 -- Third-Party Load Balancer Support

Chapter 13

This chapter provides the information that you need for integrating several third-party load balancers with Microsoft Application Center 2000 (Application Center). The product team was able to work with and test a cross-section of representative load-balancing devices, which are documented in this chapter.

NOTE

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The devices that are documented do not reflect any preferences on the part of Microsoft, and nothing should be inferred from the selection of devices that were tested.

In This Chapter

Conceptual Overview and Functional Requirements

Application Center and External Load Balancers—Concepts

Device Monitors

The ACEXT.EXE Command-Line Tool

Device Setup

Application Center supports integration with the third-party load-balancing devices that we tested by providing a command-line tool and a service that facilitates communication between its own feature set (and user interface) and each of these devices. This Microsoft Application Center 2000 Resource Kit tool was developed as an interim solution in response to customer needs.

Integration with the following devices is currently supported:

• Alteon WebSystems 180E
• Cisco Systems LocalDirector
• F5 Networks BIG-IP
• Intel NetStructure 7175 and 7185