IP Binding with Multiple NICs

Note

This feature is only available in NCache Enterprise Edition.

By using multiple Network Interface Cards (NICs), you can distribute your network load and thus increase bandwidth throughput. NCache, being a network intensive solution, allows configuring dual NICs, thereby distributing network load of communication on two NICs which enhance overall performance.

NCache involves two kinds of network communication in a database cluster:

  • Communication between server nodes within a cluster (cluster communication).
  • Communication between client and server (client-server communication).

Different NIC cards can be configured for each type of network communication in NCache. One NIC can be dedicated for cluster communication inside the cluster, while the other can be reserved only for client-to-server communication. This way, network load for communication is distributed on two NICs and resources will be utilized more efficiently, increasing overall performance and bandwidth throughput.

NCache detects all NICs on a server node and allows you to choose any one of them. If you have two NICs available on a server, it is highly recommended to use both NICs to enhance NCache communication. NCache will start utilizing both NICs on the servers, once dual NIC interface is configured.

Once the NICs have been configured, the changes are replicated in the Alachsioft.NCache.Service.exe.config file in [InstallDir]/config before NCache service is restarted:

  • BindToClusterIP is specified for cluster-wide (server-to-server) communication.
  • BindToClientServerIP tells NCache which interface to use for client communication with the server.

By default, both client-server and inter cluster communication take place on the IP that is available as BindToClientServerIP.

Important

If one node is part of multiple clusters, note that any IP changed will be reflected on all clusters and the configuration file will be updated accordingly.

You can configure multiple NICs for NCache either through NCache Manager or manually update NCache Service configuration file for this purpose.

Note

Command line tools provided by NCache communicate with NCache server on BindToClusterIP.