What and how to create a load balancing cluster [AX 2012]

You can distribute the user load in Microsoft Dynamics AX across multiple instances of Application Object Server (AOS) by creating a load balancing cluster.

Microsoft Dynamics AX offers two types of load balancing clusters:

1.      A cluster that includes a load balancer
the load balancing AOS instance is dedicated to distributing the user load. And this load balancing AOS instance does not process MS DAX business logic or data.

2.      A cluster that does not include a load balancer
you must set up client configurations to connect to the load balancing AOS instance.

When a client starts, it connects to the load balancing AOS instance. The load balancing AOS instance returns a list of active AOS instances in the cluster, sorted by workload. The client attempts to connect to the first AOS instance in the list. If that connection fails, the client attempts to connect to the second AOS instance in the list, and so on.

Before you can create a cluster, you must install multiple AOS instances. Each instance must point to the same database.

Create a cluster

1.      Click System administration > Setup > System > Cluster configuration.
Press CTRL+N to create a new cluster.
Caution: You cannot configure the Non Load Balanced AOS Instances as a load balancing cluster. The Non Load Balanced AOS Instances is a default entity that enables AOS communications for non-load balanced AOSs. To create an AOS cluster, you must create a new cluster.

2.      Enter a name and description for the cluster.

3.      Press CTRL+S to save your changes.

4.      Add an AOS instance to a cluster
Click System administration > Setup > System > Cluster configuration.

5.      In the Map AOS instances to clusters section, select an AOS instance.

6.      If you want the AOS instance that you selected to function as a load balancer, select the Load balancer option.
Note: If an AOS instance is used as a load balancer, it cannot be used as a batch server.

7.      Click the Cluster name field to display a list of available clusters. Select the cluster that you want to add the AOS instance to.

8.      Press CTRL+S to save your changes.

Change client configurations

If the cluster uses a load balancing AOS instance, set client configurations to first connect to the load balancing AOS instance. We recommend that you add all AOS instances in the cluster to the client configurations. Use the Microsoft Dynamics AX Configuration utility to change client configurations.