1.4.3 Enterprise Architecture With A Load Balancer

The enterprise architecture with a load balancer contains web servers and load balancers along with the components in Enterprise Level Architecture. Figure 1-2 illustrates the Enterprise architecture with a load balancer.

Figure 1-2 Enterprise Architecture with Load Balancer

  • Web Servers: Web server does not contain a database. It responds to the authentication requests and connects to Global Master. You need more web servers to serve more workload. It is not recommended to deploy more than 5-6 web servers per site.

  • Load Balancer: A load balancer provides an ability to serve authentication requests from External Endpoints. A load balancer is a third-party component. It must be configured to interact with Web servers.

    WARNING:Do not place the Advanced Authentication server in Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). It is recommended to use Load Balancer to process authentication requests from the external endpoints.

If a Global Master server (GMS) of a cluster goes down, the Web Servers of the primary site automatically communicate with the DB server of the primary site. When the GMS is up and running, DB server connects back to Web Servers. The switching happens within a few of minutes. If the DB Master server of a secondary site goes down, the Web Servers of the same site communicates to the DB Server of the same site. When the DB Master is up, Web Servers connect back to it. While a GMS is down, the replication between sites fail. While a DB Master of a secondary site is down, the site does not replicate with the Global Master server.

For information on the following see the respective link:

NOTE:To view an example of configuring a load balancer for an Advanced Authentication cluster, see Installing a Load Balancer for Advanced Authentication Cluster.