Re: Network Interface Card

Hello,

Here are some points worth making in regards to this setup.

1> Using the same NIC for the internal and external interface 
   is possible if the clustered servers and the Internet are
   connected via the same hub or switch or if you are using 
   ip-tunneling.

2> This is an inefficient way of setting up a cluster. 
   All the virtual servers are exposed to the Internet, 
   unless the hub itself is behind a firewall (and if the
   firewall is a Linux box, it *will* need two NICs).

   The system can handle more network load if you use two 
   NICs and a private hub for the back-end. Without the 
   dedicated back-end, you are losing performance, 
   especially if you are using ip-masq.

   By not isolating the real servers, you expose them to 
   possible direct contact. This may or may not matter to
   you depending on your network structure.

3> It may be important to manually assign the interfaces 
   instead of using DHCP if you are not behind a firewall for 
   security purposes.

   Also, you need static addresses for the all machines 
   involved (since they are part of the piranha  
   configuration). If you must use DHCP, you will need to
   configure the DHCP server to serve static addresses to
   your clustered machines. This is commonly done by 
   assigning IP addresses based on the MAC address of the
   DHCP client machines.

   Additionally, the virtual ip addresses *cannot* be served.
   They are statically entered in the Piranha configuration,
   and you need to be sure that the addresses you use for 
   this will not be given to any other machines.

   If you are not behind a firewall, it is highly 
   recommended you get behind one.

I would say that for testing purposes, you should be able to use one NIC 
for both the public and private interfaces. It is 
not, however, a recommended configuration--especially
for a production environment.

Hope that helps,

Johnray

NOTE: Special thanks to Mike McLean for his feedback on this response.

On Mon, 9 Sep 2002, Mustapha Hadim wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
> I am sending again my question about NIC.
> 
> I am  setting up a Piranha LVS cluster following the method
> deschribed in http://peterbaitz.com/pbs_howto.txt. I have a
> little question  please :
> 
> Can I use the same Network Interface Card for the private and public
> network, with several eth interfaces declared in RD 7.3 ?
> 
> Indeed, I have configured four ethernet interfaces ethi (for i=1 .. 4)
> in the network configuration window of RD 7.3. I have used the
> dhcp protocol to get two IP adresses for two ethi of the public
> network, and I assigned two private IP adresses for two ethi of
> the private network. I am using one NIC, and I don't know weither
> this will work, or need I a second NIC; i.e., one for the private network
> and the other for the public one ?
> 
> Could we have a hint please ?
> 
> Many thanks in advance,
> 
> Mustapha
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 

-- 
J-ray
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