Load Balancing

Load Balancing is a process that enables two or more RFgen servers to distribute the client workload up the number of clients the server is licensed to support. After RFgen is configured for load balancing, the load balancing process will run automatically as part of the service. Load Balancing is an optional configuration and requires additional licensing.

How it works

If a server fails, the remaining server will accommodate the total number of licenses (theirs + the total from the failed server) before reverting back to the number of licenses it was originally certified for after 7 days. For example, when one of the load balanced servers fails, its clients are disconnected. The disconnected clients can attempt a reconnection to that server again. If that reconnection fails again, then the clients automatically go to the next load-balanced server listed in their profile and attempt a connection to that server. Since the remaining live server has the combined license count, all the clients should be able to connect to the remaining server.

Load Balancing is configured under the RFgen Configuration > Application Services: Load Balancing Cluster screen. The information on which server to connect to is provided in the Profile that was deployed to the client.

RFgen will support IP addresses, but if the IP of the server changes, this will require manual changes on the client if the server IP address was used.

Note that RFgen 5.2 can also resolve to multiple IP addresses. If you had 300 devices on one server, then added a second load-balanced server and updated your DNS settings with the information of the additional server, and your devices can then be load-balanced to the new server without changing the profiles on the existing clients.

In the Mobile Profile of the client to be load balanced, make sure the Load Balanced server is listed in the Device Configuration section. If you want the client to prompt the user to select a server, set the Mobile Profile > Device Settings: Auto Connect value to "Disabled."

If you want the client to auto connect to one of the servers on the list, set Auto Connect to "Enabled".

If you plan on using Load Balanced RFgen Servers, contact your RFgen Sales Representative to ensure your servers and clients licensed appropriately before you start.

For details see "To Setup Load Balancing" in this guide.

If you are using a third-party load balancing system, software, or appliance, consider configuring your the RFgen initionalization (RFgen.ini) file with the LBHealthChecker function. For more information, refer to the knowledge base article "How to heath check communication between 3rd party Load Balancers and RFgen."