This cookbook configures IIS as a simple web load-balancer by creating an IIS Server Farm. It also allows you to add servers to the farm by passing a node['iis-lb']['members'] hash.

This cookbook helps demonstrate the wrapper-cookbook pattern, attribute precedence and search in Chef Essentials training for Windows. This cookbook does NOT describe the definitive pattern for configuring IIS as a web load-balancer. Use at your own risk.

This cookbook was tested on:

• Windows Server 2012 R2

It may (or may not) work on other Windows Server variants.

Specify your servers by setting the node['iis-lb']['members'] attribute hash in a wrapper cookbook. Then include the 'iis-lb::default' recipe. This creates the Server Farm and adds your servers to it. For example:

# contents of chef-repo/cookbooks/my-wrapper-cookbook/recipes/default.rb
node.default['iis-lb']['members'] = [
  {
    'address' => 'localhost',
    'weight' => 100,
    'port' => 4000,
    'ssl_port' => 4000
  },
  {
    'address' => '127.0.0.1',
    'weight' => 100,
    'port' => 4001,
    'ssl_port' => 4001
  }]

include_recipe 'iis-lb::default'

Installs the necessary components and create an IIS Server Farm myServerFarm. This also adds servers to the Server Farm, based on the node['iis-lb']['members'] attribute hash.

Installs Application Request Router (ARR) 3.0 using Microsoft Web Platform Installer (webpi). This recipe is used by the resources in this cookbook.

Creates an IIS Server Farm, sets its load-balancing algorithm and creates the necessary URL rewrite rules.

default = :create

• :create - creates the server farm, load balancing algorithm and the URL rewrite rules.
• :remove - removes the server farm with all its servers and URL rewrite rules.

• farm_name - the name of the Server Farm.
• algorithm - sets the Server Farm's Load Balancing algorithm. Default is WeightedRoundRobin, Valid Values are: 'WeightedRoundRobin', 'LeastRequests', 'LeastResponseTime', 'WeightedTotalTraffic', 'RequestHash'

# creates a Server Farm called SuperDuperFarm with lb algorithm LeastRequests
iis_lb_farm 'SuperDuperFarm' do
  action :create
  algorithm 'LeastRequests'
end

# removes a Server Farm called SuperDuperFarm
iis_lb_farm 'SuperDuperFarm' do
  action :remove
end

Adds a server to a Server Farm.

default = :add

• :add - adds a server to a server farm. If the specified farm does not exist, it is created automagically. If the farm is not specified then servers get added to a new myServerFarm.
• :remove - removes a server from a server farm. If the farm is not specified, the server is removed from myServerFarm.

• server_address - name attribute. Specifies IP or FQDN of a server to add to the farm.
• farm - The name of the IIS Server Farm to add the server to. Default is myServerFarm
• weight - Relative weight for Weighted Round Robin load distribution. Default is 100
• port - HTTP port that the server is listening on. Default is 80
• ssl_port - HTTPS port that the server is listening on. Default is 443

# adds server webserver.superdomain.internal, with http/https ports of 8080/4443, to SuperDuperFarm
iis_lb_server 'webserver.superdomain.internal' do
  port 8080
  ssl_port 4443
  farm 'SuperDuperFarm'
  action :add
end

# removes the Server Farm called SuperDuperFarm
iis_lb_server 'webserver.superdomain.internal' do
  farm 'SuperDuperFarm'
  action :remove
end

This cookbook depends on the following Community Cookbooks:

• webpi
• iis