Blackboard Learn™ is a Learning Management System (LMS) developed by Blackboard Inc. It is web-based server software which features course management, customizable open architecture and scalable design that allows integration with student information systems and authentication protocols. Its main purpose is to add online elements to courses which are traditionally delivered face-to-face and develop completely online courses with little or no face-to-face meetings.

To improve performance and provide High Availability (HA), Blackboard Learn™ supports using a hardware or software load balancer and multiple application servers. The LoadMaster can be used to load balance Blackboard Learn™ traffic.

Document Purpose

The purpose of this document is to describe how to configure the LoadMaster to load balance Blackboard Learn™. This document is based on Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP8. Progress Kemp supports other versions of Learn, but there may be some features that do not work with older versions of Learn.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites must be satisfied before configuring the LoadMaster to work with Blackboard Learn™:

  • The Blackboard Learn™ application must be deployed and successfully tested
  • The Application Servers must have the relevant JDK and JRE installed.
  • A Microsoft SQL Server must be installed