There are some prerequisites to aware of before clustering LoadMasters:

  • A minimum of three LoadMasters are needed to set up clustering. However, four LoadMasters are recommended.

  • All of the LoadMasters in the cluster must be physically identical in terms of the hardware used. Clustering also works with Virtual LoadMasters but the Virtual Machines must have the same resources assigned; this includes CPU, memory and Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Once an empty machine is brought into the cluster, all parameters from the other machines (network interfaces, and so on), are copied over onto the new machine. Local addresses for network interfaces must then be set.

  • Requirements for clustering in a virtual environment (VMware, Hyper-V, and so on) are the same as those for High Availability (HA). In these environments:

    • Ensure that Media Access Control (MAC) spoofing is allowed and enabled

    • Ensure that multicast traffic flow is working in both directions between the devices

  • A 2-arm configuration is required.