We have a three node Windows NLB cluster which runs on physical Windows 2003 servers. These are at end of life and we want to transition to VM's. How can we add a VMware server into our existing NLB cluster as sort of a rolling upgrade so that we will ultimately have 3 VMware 2008 servers in the NLB and all of the physical 2003 servers weill have been replaced. We want to minimize downtime on the cluster as our application needs to be up 24x7.
So far we have tried this approach on a test NLB cluster:
1. Convert exisiting physical W2003 based from unicast to multicast. This causes a 2-3 minute outage and isn't fully functional until we add the static ARP entries in our network gear but then it appears to work ok.
2. Add the first VMware server to the NLB cluster configuring it to be STOPPED.
So far so good. However, when we bring the VMware server online to the NLB we're finding that things stop working.
So is it possible to get a W2008R2 VMserver and a physical W2003 server to work in the same NLB cluster for the purpose of a rolling upgrade? If so what's the trick?
We have a lot more tech details we can share if needed, but this seems to be the crux of the issue.