Create New Cluster: If setting up a new cluster, click this button.

Add to Cluster: Add this LoadMaster to an already existing cluster.

When the Create New Cluster button is clicked, the screen above will appear which prompts to set the shared IP address of the cluster. The shared IP address is the address which is used to administer the cluster.

When the Create a Cluster button is clicked, the LoadMaster reboots. A message will appear asking to reconnect to the shared IP address that was just set.

After creating a cluster, the Cluster Control screen in the WUI of the shared IP address will allow the addition of LoadMaster nodes into the cluster.

Note: A LoadMaster can only be added to a cluster when the cluster is available and waiting to join the cluster. Refer to the Add a Node LoadMaster to the Cluster section for further information and steps.

The Cluster Control screen, in the shared IP address WUI, displays details for each of the nodes in the cluster.

Show Options: Clicking the Show Options button will display the Cluster Parameters section which contains two additional fields which can be used to set the Cluster Virtual ID and Node Drain Time. For further information, refer to the Cluster Parameters section.

ID: The cluster ID.

Address: The IP address of the LoadMaster node. If a second IP address appears in brackets after the first one - the second IP address is the IP address of the interface port. The IP address and status text is coloured depending on the status:

  • Blue: The node is the admin node.

  • Grey: The node is disabled.

  • Green and red: The node is starting.

  • Green: The node is up.

  • Red: The node is down.

Status: The status of the node. The possible statuses are:

  • Admin: The node is the primary control node.

  • Up: The node is up.

  • Down: The node is down.

  • Drain stopping: The node has been disabled and the connections are being shut down in an orderly fashion. Drain stopping lasts for 10 seconds by default. This can be updated by changing the Node Drain Time value on the Cluster Control screen. For more information, refer to the Updating the Node Drain Time section.

  • Starting: The node is starting

  • Disabled: The node is disabled - connections will not be sent to that node. If there are no Virtual Services in the node, the node is in a Disabled state.

Operation: The different operations that can be performed in relation to the notes:

  • Add new node: Add a new node with the specified IP address to the cluster.

  • Disable: Disable the node. Nodes that are disabled will first go through drain stopping. During the drain stopping time, the connections are shut down in an orderly fashion. After the drain, the node is disabled and no traffic is directed to that node.

  • Enable: Enable the node. When a node comes up, it will not be immediately be brought into rotation. It will only come online after it has been up for 30 seconds.

  • Delete: Delete a node from the cluster. When a node is deleted it becomes a regular single LoadMaster instance. If the LoadMaster is later added back in to the cluster, any configuration changes that have been made in the shared IP address will propagate to the node LoadMaster.

Cluster Parameters

When the Show Options button is clicked, the Cluster Parameters section appears. This section contains two additional WUI options - Cluster Virtual ID and Node Drain Time.

Cluster Virtual ID

When using multiple clusters or LoadMaster HA systems on the same network, the virtual ID identifies each cluster so that there are no potential unwanted interactions. The cluster virtual ID is set to 1 by default, but it can be changed if required. Valid IDs range from 1 to 255. Changes made to an admin Loadmaster propagate across all nodes in the cluster.

Node Drain Time

When a node is disabled, the connections that are still being served by the node are allowed to continue for the amount of seconds specified in the Node Drain Time text box. No new connections are handled by the node during this time. The Node Drain Time is set to 10 seconds by default, but it can be changed if required. Valid values range from 1 to 600 (seconds).

During the drain time the status changes to Draining until the specified drain time elapses.

When the drain time has elapsed the status changes to disabled.