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I agree with blissbear, the cluster operation mode depends on the type of Application which the Cluster hosts.<br />

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I agree with blissbear, the cluster operation mode depends on the type of Application which the Cluster hosts.


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This is for an IIS SMTP cluster, which will be used by about 100 machines?<br />
<br />
What does unicast/multicast actually mean in layman's terms?
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This is for an IIS SMTP cluster, which will be used by about 100 machines?

What does unicast/multicast actually mean in layman's terms?

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unicast is traffic that is sent to one IP address. &nbsp;multicast is a special method of sending data on a LAN that allows you to send it to ALL of the addresses in a subnet.<br />
<br />
So, for instance wanted to say, send a video stream to every machine on a LAN, you could do it using multicast technology and every machine would get the data and it would only have to be sent once, thus minimizing the bandwidth usage on the network.
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unicast is traffic that is sent to one IP address.  multicast is a special method of sending data on a LAN that allows you to send it to ALL of the addresses in a subnet.

So, for instance wanted to say, send a video stream to every machine on a LAN, you could do it using multicast technology and every machine would get the data and it would only have to be sent once, thus minimizing the bandwidth usage on the network.

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Hi All<br />
<br />
I am setting up a Windows 2008 server NLB, and there is the option of setting up the cluster operation mode in Unicast or Multicast.<br />
<br />
This is slightly complicated by the fact that both the cluster nodes are virtual servers (Vmware ESX guests) running on the same ESX host, which itself is an HP Blade server connected to our Cisco switches via Virtual Connect modules!<br />
<br />
Can anyone advise which option is best in this case - Unicast, Multicast or IGMP Multicast?<br />
<br />
Much appreciated!
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Hi All

I am setting up a Windows 2008 server NLB, and there is the option of setting up the cluster operation mode in Unicast or Multicast.

This is slightly complicated by the fact that both the cluster nodes are virtual servers (Vmware ESX guests) running on the same ESX host, which itself is an HP Blade server connected to our Cisco switches via Virtual Connect modules!

Can anyone advise which option is best in this case - Unicast, Multicast or IGMP Multicast?

Much appreciated!

Unicast v Multicast in Windows 2008 NLB

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, based on the Microsoft Vista codebase, is the last 32-bit server operating system released by Microsoft. It has a number of versions, including including Foundation, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, HPC Server, Itanium and Storage; new features included server core installation and Hyper-V.

Windows Server 2008

Hardware includes cell phones and other digital living devices, tablets, computers, servers, peripherals and components, printers and scanners, gaming consoles, networking hardware such as routers, hubs, switches and modems, storage devices and security equipment such as firewalls and other appliances.

Hardware

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.