iis-lb

This cookbook configures IIS as a simple web load-balancer by creating an IIS Server Farm. It also allows you to add servers to the farm by passing a node['iis-lb']['members'] hash.

DISCLAIMER

This cookbook helps demonstrate the wrapper-cookbook pattern, attribute precedence and search in Chef Essentials training for Windows. This cookbook does NOT describe the definitive pattern for configuring IIS as a web load-balancer. Use at your own risk.

Platforms

This cookbook was tested on:

• Windows Server 2012 R2

It may (or may not) work on other Windows Server variants.

Usage

Specify your servers by setting the node['iis-lb']['members'] attribute hash in a wrapper cookbook. Then include the 'iis-lb::default' recipe. This creates the Server Farm and adds your servers to it. For example:

# contents of chef-repo/cookbooks/my-wrapper-cookbook/recipes/default.rb
node.default['iis-lb']['members'] = [
  {
    'address' => 'localhost',
    'weight' => 100,
    'port' => 4000,
    'ssl_port' => 4000
  },
  {
    'address' => '127.0.0.1',
    'weight' => 100,
    'port' => 4001,
    'ssl_port' => 4001
  }]

include_recipe 'iis-lb::default'

Recipes

default

Installs the necessary components and create an IIS Server Farm myServerFarm. This also adds servers to the Server Farm, based on the node['iis-lb']['members'] attribute hash.

_arr

Installs Application Request Router (ARR) 3.0 using Microsoft Web Platform Installer (webpi). This recipe is used by the resources in this cookbook.

Resources

iis_lb_farm

Creates an IIS Server Farm, sets its load-balancing algorithm and creates the necessary URL rewrite rules.

Actions

default = :create

• :create - creates the server farm, load balancing algorithm and the URL rewrite rules.
• :remove - removes the server farm with all its servers and URL rewrite rules.

Attribute Parameters

• farm_name - the name of the Server Farm.
• algorithm - sets the Server Farm's Load Balancing algorithm. Default is WeightedRoundRobin, Valid Values are: 'WeightedRoundRobin', 'LeastRequests', 'LeastResponseTime', 'WeightedTotalTraffic', 'RequestHash'

Example

# creates a Server Farm called SuperDuperFarm with lb algorithm LeastRequests
iis_lb_farm 'SuperDuperFarm' do
  action :create
  algorithm 'LeastRequests'
end

# removes a Server Farm called SuperDuperFarm
iis_lb_farm 'SuperDuperFarm' do
  action :remove
end

iis_lb_server

Adds a server to a Server Farm.

Actions

default = :add

• :add - adds a server to a server farm. If the specified farm does not exist, it is created automagically. If the farm is not specified then servers get added to a new myServerFarm.
• :remove - removes a server from a server farm. If the farm is not specified, the server is removed from myServerFarm.

Attribute Parameters

• server_address - name attribute. Specifies IP or FQDN of a server to add to the farm.
• farm - The name of the IIS Server Farm to add the server to. Default is myServerFarm
• weight - Relative weight for Weighted Round Robin load distribution. Default is 100
• port - HTTP port that the server is listening on. Default is 80
• ssl_port - HTTPS port that the server is listening on. Default is 443

Example

# adds server webserver.superdomain.internal, with http/https ports of 8080/4443, to SuperDuperFarm
iis_lb_server 'webserver.superdomain.internal' do
  port 8080
  ssl_port 4443
  farm 'SuperDuperFarm'
  action :add
end

# removes the Server Farm called SuperDuperFarm
iis_lb_server 'webserver.superdomain.internal' do
  farm 'SuperDuperFarm'
  action :remove
end

Dependencies

This cookbook depends on the following Community Cookbooks:

• webpi
• iis