Load Balancing
NetMan Desktop Manager's integrated load balancing offers the option of distributing sessions among several servers.
NetMan Desktop Manager offers two load-sharing options. Either the sessions can be distributed among the terminal servers according to the number of sessions currently active, or NetMan Desktop Manager can monitor the CPU load and memory use of the individual servers and distribute the sessions based on these resources.
If the load is shared by the number of sessions, you can specify how many sessions NetMan Desktop Manager assigns to each individual server. In this way you can take advantage of more powerful machines while retaining older servers that serve fewer users. If the load is shared by CPU and memory capacity, NetMan Desktop Manager distributes sessions completely automatically.
NetMan Desktop Manager's load balancing mechanism also supports "server draining". This can be used to remove specific servers gracefully from the load balancing cluster to perform maintenance for example. A server being drained continues to serve its existing sessions, but does not accept new users or sessions. If necessary, the administrator can also terminate the remaining sessions. After the maintenance work is completed, a simple mouse-click is all it takes to add the server back into the load balancing cluster.
In addition to application-based load balancing, NetMan Desktop Manager also supports the use of the network load balancing (NLB) integrated in Windows Server 2003. All servers in the Windows 2003 product line, from Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition upward, have NLB capability, which permits load sharing among several servers at the IP level.
