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HTTP/HTTPS messaging in server clusters

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

HTTP/HTTPS messaging in server clusters

This section applies only to users running Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition in a server cluster configuration. To implement Message Queuing in a server cluster, Message Queuing is installed with the same set of subcomponents on all nodes in a server cluster. This means that if you install Message Queuing with HTTP Support on one node, install Message Queuing with the same functionality on all other nodes.

When you install Message Queuing with the HTTP component on a cluster node, IIS will also be installed on that node, if it is not already installed. You then define cluster groups for Message Queuing, and create a virtual server - a cluster group that will contain the Message Queuing resource, plus other resources upon which the Message Queuing resource depends. For further information, see Message Queuing in server clusters. Each virtual server is associated with a network name and an IP address. To support these virtual servers, IIS must assign a Web site for all virtual server IP addresses. To do this, configure the default Web site setting to All Unassigned, which assigns to the default Web site all IP addresses that are not assigned to a specific site. Alternatively, you can specify the IP address of a particular virtual server as the default Web site. For instructions on setting these options, see Configure Message Queuing with HTTP for server clusters.

Failover for the Message Queuing resource with HTTP

If the IIS service on the cluster node goes down, this does not cause the Message Queuing cluster group to fail over. This means that in such a case the Message Queuing resource will continue to work on the node, but HTTP messaging cannot be used. For more information on forcing failover of cluster groups when IIS goes down, see the Windows Server 2003 family Help file, or the IIS Help file.