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DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

 
Brian  Schenkenberger
Frequent Advisor

DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

Two identical VMS systems configured with BIND to server the domain of these two system.   Let's call them Quisp and Quake and the domain is cereal.com.

 

The bind server config defines these as

 

quisp     IN      A       x.y.z.10
quake    IN      A       x.y.z.20

I then configured the load broker config from the template.  The cluster alias is breakfast.cereal.com. 

 

No mater what I do, I only ever connect to one of the machines when I use the cluster alias name.

 

I've found a number of threads here WRT Load Broker and not one of them with an answer.  Does this actually work?  Or, am I just wasting life-cycles?

8 REPLIES 8
John Gillings
Honored Contributor

Re: DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

Brian,

 

   if you want to select a node based on load, the first thing you need is a load. Are the machines busy? If not, try putting an artificial load on the one you're landing on to see if that pushes incoming connections to the other.

A crucible of informative mistakes
Jeremy Begg
Trusted Contributor

Re: DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

Hi Brian,

 

Load Broker does work, I've used it in the past to good effect.

You need to make sure the Load Broker software is configured and running on both cluster members. You also need to make sure that the DNS server(s) will accept BIND updates from the Load Broker.

 

As John has said, if the load on the two machines doesn't change there's a good chance the DNS won't get updated.

 

Regards,

Jeremy Begg

Brian  Schenkenberger
Frequent Advisor

Re: DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

OK.  Just how much of a difference should I see in 'metricview' before this will occur?

 

And, I put a load on the system; that is why I am asking.

Brian  Schenkenberger
Frequent Advisor

Re: DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

I give up... is there an example configuration for this?  I'm pretty sure that I've configured Load Broker fine and I have

 

zone "CEREAL.ORG" in {
        type master;
        file "CEREAL_ORG.DB";
        allow-update { 192.168.1.10; 192.168.1.20; };
};

in the BIND config.

Brian  Schenkenberger
Frequent Advisor

Re: DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

QUISP$ ty TCPIP$LBROKER_QUISP.LOG
25-Oct-2011 06:59:44 NOTICE: starting.  DNS Load Broker 1.2
25-Oct-2011 06:59:44 NOTICE: Ready to answer queries.
25-Oct-2011 07:00:22 ERROR: res_nupdate() failed: 0 zones: error 0
25-Oct-2011 07:01:00 ERROR: res_nupdate() failed: 0 zones: error 0
25-Oct-2011 07:01:38 ERROR: res_nupdate() failed: 0 zones: error 0
25-Oct-2011 07:02:16 ERROR: res_nupdate() failed: 0 zones: error 0
25-Oct-2011 07:02:54 ERROR: res_nupdate() failed: 0 zones: error 0

?????

Brian  Schenkenberger
Frequent Advisor

Re: DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

I am thoroughly convinced this Load Broker stuff does not work.  I increased the log level.  The attachment has what I found.  What "device" cannot be found??????

Brian  Schenkenberger
Frequent Advisor

Re: DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

I could probably write a better Load Broker in DCL with the aid of 'nsupdate' because IT WORKS!  I'm using the same keys that were generated for and configured in Load Broker with 'nsupdate' so why doesn't Load Broker work?  I can only conclude from the lack of answers here to my question and others like it, that this Load Broker is as hopelessly pathetic as the company providing it.

Brian  Schenkenberger
Frequent Advisor

Re: DNS/Load Broker... does it work?

I wonder if ...

%SYSTEM-F-OPCCUS, opcode reserved to customer fault at PC=FFFFFFFF80BA2344, PS=0000001B

... has anything to do with it???

 

Since I _CAN_ 'nsupdate' this zone from my Linux laptop, I don't think the problem is in BIND or its related configurations.  I think there's a legitimate BUG in the code of 'nsupdate'  and, very likely, Load Broker assuming there's some commonality.

 

BTW...

  HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Alpha Version V5.6 - ECO 5
  on an AlphaServer ES45 Model 2B running OpenVMS V8.3