Setting up a web farm

You use web farms to distribute the load on more than one server. To install Sitefinity to a web farm, you use Microsoft Web Farm Framework (WFF) 2.0 for IIS 7. To setup a web farm you must have a controller server that will host the web farm and servers that will be connected in a web farm.

PREREQUISITES: Every server in the web farm must have one of the following:

• A local administrator account with the same name and password as an administrator account on each computer that will participate in the server farm.
• A domain account in the local Administrators group that is also in the local Administrators group on each computer that will participate in the server farm.
• For more information, see System and Platform Requirements for the Web Farm Framework 2.0 for IIS 7 on http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/913/system-and-platform-requirements-for-the-web-farm-framework-20-for-iis-7/.

Perform the following procedure:

1. Install Web Farm Framework.
   For more information, see Setting up a Server Farm with the Web Farm Framework 2.0 for IIS 7 on http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/919/setting-up-a-server-farm-with-the-web-farm-framework-20-for-iis-7/. Perform procedures Installing Web Farm Framework 2.0, Configuring the Primary Server, and Preparing the Secondary Servers.

   IMPORTANT: Only the controller must have Web Farm Framework. All servers that are part of the web farm must have Application Request Routing for IIS 7.0.

2. To create a web farm, on the controller server, open Internet Information Services (IIS) by clicking Start » Administrative Tools » Internet Information Services.
3. In the left pane, open the context menu of Server Farm and click Create Server Farm.
   The Create Server Farm wizard appears.
4. Enter a name for the farm.
5. If not selected, select Server farm is available for load balancing and Provision server farm checkboxes.
6. Enter the credentials for the administrator account that is available on all servers and click Next.
7. On Add Servers screen click Finish.
8. In the dialog that appears, click Yes.
   The web farm is created and appears in the tree on the left.
9. Select the web farm and in the right pane double-click Application.
   Sitefinity does not use Application provisioning. Uncheck all selected checkboxes and in Synchronization Interval enter 00:00:00.
10. Select the web farm and in the right pane double-click Platform.
    Sitefinity does not use Platform provisioning. Uncheck all selected checkboxes and in Synchronization Interval enter 00:00:00.
11. Select the web farm and in the right pane double-click Load Balance.
12. Set Load Balance Algorithm to Weighted total traffic and the Load distribution to Event Distribution.
13. To add a server to the farm, select Add Servers in the context menu of Servers node in the left pane.
14. Enter the name of the server, select Server is available for Load Balancing checkbox and click Add.
15. Perform Step 13 for as many servers as needed.

    NOTE: Because you have disabled Application and Platform provisioning, all of the servers are set to the Secondary role.

16. When finished adding servers, click OK.

Once you have created and configured your cluster, you must configure Sitefinity for load balancing. For more information, see Configuring Sitefinity for load balancing.