Windows Failover cluster and FileServer Role Loadbalancing

Question

Hello,

Good Morning.
I have a windows 2019 Failover cluster setup. I have multiple File Server Role created and noticed that all the volumes/drives are owned by a single node and other node seems like a passive one. I am interested to load balance the file server role creation among the nodes of the clusters. I don't see this happening by default. Am i missing something or is there any settings which can make sure FileServer role creation is load balanced.

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,

Thanks for your reply!

Firstly I would like to check if you want to load balance workload (files) to different nodes, or to load balance traffic to different nodes. If you want to load balance files, then as far as I know, I am afraid we do not have certain services for cluster. Here is an article for an overview for failover cluster:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/failover-clustering/failover-clustering-overview

Besides, you can post your demands on our Feedback website to let our product team informed of this customer need. Here is the link:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/send-feedback-to-microsoft-with-the-feedback-hub-app-f59187f8-8739-22d6-ba93-f66612949332

If you mean load balance the traffic, then deploying network LB as I recommended before is enough.

Thanks for your support and understanding! And if you think my reply is helpful, you can help me Accept Answer to support my work! : )

BR,
Joan

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Answer 2

Hi,

Thanks for posting on our forum!

Firstly, LB is not necessarily required in File server, or in other words, we normally do not configure file server in that way. For file server role, we have SMB Multichannel enabled in 2019 Server by default. The function for SMB multichannel is similar with that for storage load balancer. In a cluster, there is a network distinctively set up for storage and will automatically seek for high speed NIC ports for your storage. SMB multichannel can also load balance traffic for different networks, especially during busy time:

In addition, you can gain a deeper understanding about SMB multichannel from these articles:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/failover-clustering/smb-multichannel

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/manage/manage-smb-multichannel

Secondly, based on your descriptions, I suppose you may be nterested in VM load balancing or network load balancing for your cluster. Here are some articles describing these two features in detail:

VM LB
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/manage/vm-load-balancing

How to configure Network Load Balancing In Windows Server 2019
https://www.xpertstec.com/how-to-configure-network-load-balancing-in-windows-server-2019/

Please note: Information posted in the given link is hosted by a third party. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy and effectiveness of information.

Thanks for your support!

BR,
Joan

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Answer 3

Thanks Joan for the quick response.

As i am not looking for a VM Load balancing, my requirement is to load balance the fileserver roles among the nodes.

Say for example if i have fileserver1 on node1, fileserver2 on node2, fileserver3 on node1 again ..etc..This way the compute and network resources are properly utilized.

Answer 4

Thanks Joan for the information. I am actually looking for an option to load balance fileserver.