KEMP VLM100 on VMware Fusion 5.0.2
The past couple of days I dived into KEMP’s virtual loadbalancer VLM100. In this blogpost I’ll try to help you getting up and running with some of the features included in KEMP’s software as well as give my opinion on the usability and easy of use of these products.
The Installation
I decided to try the KEMP loadbalancer software within a small and easy to setup environment. Since my MacBook Pro has 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD as well as HDD I decided to install the virtual environment on my MBP to try the KEMP VLM100.
The Setup
Within VMware Fusion I put up 2 ESXi 5.1 hosts and the KEMP VLM100 . On which I installed a windows 2008 R2 and a Microsoft exchange server 2010.
Installation
The installation of the KEMP VLM100 is a very straight forward and easy process. Just follow the following steps:
- Go to the KEMP website and download the OVF file
- Unzip the downloaded file
- Search for the LoadMaster-VLM-6.0-40CM-VMX.vmx file and double click it!
- The VM will be loaded into the Fusion Virtual Machine library
- Fire it up and let the VM boot
- While booting the VM should be able to get a DHCP provided IP address (or like in my case this needs to be done afterwards ;))
- Log in to the console using the following credentials:
- user : bal
- password : 1fourall
- If DHCP kicked in you just need to enter the access code into the following field (click on the images for a larger image):
- If DHCP didn’t kick in make sure to follow the documentation found here (Chapter 3 – Troubleshooting)
That’s it the installation is done! It’s easy as that 😉
Installing Templates
You can always create new rules yourself, but you can also download some templates here to make your live easier 😉
Installing these templates is done in just a few (very easy steps):
- Download the templates you need from here (look for the templates)
- Make sure you can access the tmpl file from the web user interface
- go to the web user interface https://172.24.20.1 (in my case)
- log in with the provided credentials (user: bal password: 1fourall)
- click on Virtual Services (Step 1)
- Click on Manage Templates (Step 2)
- Click on choose File:
- Browse to the folder where you saved the template
- Choose the template file (core.tmpl in my case)
- Click open. The core.tmpl file should be loaded. Click on Add New Templates:
- In the popup click OK
- The templates are now added
Using a template to setup a Virtual Service
- Go to Virtual Services and click on Add New
- Click on the down arrow at Use Template and choose the template you want to use:
- In the Text box with Virtual Address put in the IP address you want to use:
- In the Properties for VIP screen click on the + sign in front of Real Servers
- Click on the Add New button
- Type in the Real Server IP address
- Check if everything is set…
So you want a virtual loadbalancer
The installation of KEMP technologies loadbalancer was a smooth and easy to perform one. Same goes for setting up some basic rules, but it would be a good thing for KEMP to add a lot more templates on their website. The KEMP technology documentation and website are excellent resources and this link provides many reviews and information about KEMP’s product line by many fellow bloggers. We set this up in an test environment with a customer and tested the rules I implemented above for Exchange 2010 and it worked excellent. I would definitely recommend giving KEMP a trial when looking for a loadbalancer.
Used documenation: