To configure 2X LoadBalancer click on ‘Load Balancing’ in the Navigation bar in the 2X ApplicationServer & LoadBalancer Console. This option is available in Enterprise Edition and VDS Edition.

In this page you can choose the load balancing method to be used. The 2X LoadBalancer has two possible methods to load balance incoming connections.

Round Robin Load Balancing: in this method, 2X LoadBalancer will identify the next available Terminal Server and forward the incoming connection accordingly, regardless of available resources on the server.

Resource Based Load Balancing: in this method, 2X LoadBalancer will retrieve the load information for all Terminal Servers in the farm and, based on the counters chosen, will determine the terminal server that will handle the incoming connection. Three different counters are available:

Sessions: the connection is redirected to the server with the least number of sessions in use.

Memory Utilization: the connection is redirected to the server with the best free/used RAM ratio.

CPU Utilization: the connection is redirected to the server with the best free/used CPU time ratio.

If more that one counter is selected for load balancing, 2X LoadBalancer will add the counter ratios together, and redirect the session to the server with the most favorable combined ratio.

The recommended setting is to enable all three counters, unless there is a particular need for one of the other counters available.

NOTE: It will be necessary to install 2X Terminal Server Agent on all Terminal Servers and Citrix Servers and/or 2X VDS Agent on all Virtual Desktop Hosts before they can successfully participate in a load-balanced farm.

Enable the “Reconnect to disconnected sessions” option to allow 2X Publishing Agent to redirect an incoming user session to a previously disconnected session owned by the same user.

You may also choose to reconnect active sessions by selecting ‘Limit User to one session per desktop’. Therefore if a user connects to a Terminal Server and re-connects again while there is an active session started by the same user, he will be connected to his same active session.

NOTE: To limit users to one session per desktop, make sure that the setting ‘Restrict each user to one session’ is set on all Terminal Servers from the Terminal Services configurations\Connections.

From the Advanced Settings one can change the default timeouts for the Terminal Server Agents. Advanced settings should be configured using the default settings in normal scenarios.

This option is the amount of time that the 2X Publishing Agent should wait without a reply from each 2X Terminal Server Agent before declaring that particular Agent as dead.

This option is the amount of time that the 2X Publishing Agent should re-check the connection with each 2X Terminal Server Agent.

The CPU Load Balancer has an important role in the 2X Terminal Server Agent as when enabled it can control those processes that are using the most CPU. This can be done as the 2X Terminal Server Agent is given a High base priority and when the Terminal Server CPU exceeds 95%, the process that is using most CPU is given a low priority. With this option enabled, when the CPU is over 95%, other sessions and other applications will continue to operate normally.

In this page one can set specific filters so that native RDP & ICA connections can be redirected to specific terminal server(s). Load balancing rules are useful to assign a group of terminal servers or a specific terminal server with a specific 2X Client Gateway IP. Therefore connections initiated from that particular IP will be load balanced to correspondent group or particular terminal server.

NOTE: Load Balancing Rules are applicable only to non published desktop sessions.

The <Default> rule is pre-configured as the last rule which will catch all non configured gateway IPs. By default this rule is configured to load balance the sessions between all servers in farm. However one can change the properties of this rule by selecting the default rule and click ‘Properties...’.

To add a native RDP & ICA Load Balancing Rule, click the ‘Add...’ button. This will open a new dialog as shown below. First select the interface for which you would like to create the rule. Secondly you have to select between ‘All Servers in Farm’, ‘Server Groups’, ‘Individual Server’ or ‘None’.

All connections initiated through this interface will be load balanced between all servers in the farm. One should note that the default rule is already pre-configures to load balance native RDP & ICA sessions between all servers in farm.

All connections initiated through this interface will be load balanced with the selected group. One can select one or more groups to be associated with this interface as shown in the figure below. These Terminal Server Groups can be configured in the Terminal Server page.

All connections initiated through this interface will be load balanced with the selected individual servers. Therefore one can select particular individual servers and connections initiated from the selected interface will be load balanced with the selected Terminal Server.

With this option one can also configure an IP to be associated with only one single server.

All connections initiated through this IP will be denied. This option is ideal in order to deny connections initiated from the configured gateway IP. For security reasons it useful to allow connections from a certain interface.

With this option one can configure connections initiated from the specified gateway IP to not be forwarded (load balanced) to any terminal server.

After you’ve configured the rule with the particular gateway IP (interface), click ‘OK’ to save the rule.

To re-configure a rule, select the particular rule and click ‘Properties’.

To delete a rule, select the particular rule and click ‘Delete’.