System and Platform Requirements for the Web Farm Framework 2.0 for IIS 7

• Published on July 21, 2010 by rdubois
• Updated on May 13, 2011 by rdubois
• Tags: Web Farm Framework

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This article describes the system and platform requirements for setting up Web Farm Framework 2.0 for IIS 7 in order to create and manage a server farm.

Note: The hardware requirements for Web Farm Framework 2.0 are the same as the requirements for the operating system on which you are installing it.

Platform Requirements 

Each computer that will participate in a server farm must have the following:

• Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 installed.
• The .NET Framework 2.0 or later installed.
• One of the following accounts:
• A local administrator account with the same name and password as an an administrator account on each computer that will participate in the server farm.
• A domain account in the local Administrators group that is also in the local Administrators group on each computer that will participate in the server farm.
• A network connection that is accessible by the other servers that will participate in the server farm.

Firewall Exceptions

The following programs and features must be allowed to communicate through your firewall in order for the Web Farm Framework components to communicate with the servers in your server farm:

• Core Networking
• Remote Administration

If you are using Windows Firewall, follow these steps to allow these programs.

1. In the Windows Control Panel, do one of the following:
   
   
• On Windows Server 2008 R2, if View by Category is selected, click System and Security, and then on the System and Security page click Allow a program through Windows Firewall.
  
  On Windows Server 2008, if Control Panel home is selected, click Security, and then on the Security page click Allow a program through Windows Firewall.
  
  If Icon View is selected (Windows Server 2008 R2), click Windows Firewall, and then click Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall.
  
  If Classic View is selected (Windows Server 2008), click Windows Firewall, and then click Allow a program through Windows Firewall.
  
  
2. On the Allowed Programs page, click Change Settings.
3. Select Core Networking, Remote Administration and File and Printer Sharing and then click OK.
   
   The program must be allowed to communicate on the domain. You can optionally select other networks.

Controller Server Requirements

The computer that will be the controller server must have the following:

• Windows Vista with SP1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 with SP1, or Windows Server R2 installed.
• The Microsoft Web Platform Installer (Web PI) installed. To download Web PI, see Web Platform Installer.
• IIS 7 installed (IIS 7.0 or IIS 7.5). If you do not have IIS 7 installed, you can use the Web PI to install it.
• The Microsoft Web Deploy module for IIS. If Web Deploy is not installed on the computer, it will automatically be installed by the Web PI with the Web Farm Framework as a required dependency. 

Provisioning Requirements

To provision your server farm, you first set up a primary server, and then Web Farm Framework duplicates that setup on each secondary server. The following computer architecture and operating systems requirements must be met.

Architecture Requirements

Each computer that will be a secondary server in the server farm must have the same architecture or later as the primary server, as shown in the following table:

If the primary server is a 32-bit computer, each secondary server must also be a 32-bit computer. If the primary server is a 64-bit computer, the secondary servers can be either 32-bit or 64-bit, or a combination of both.

Important: If the primary server is 64-bit and a secondary server is 32-bit, provisioning will fail for all 64-bit applications, because they will not run on a 32-bit computer. However, if the primary server is 32-bit and a secondary server is 64-bit, provisioning will be successful. For best results, use computers with the same architecture for the primary and secondary servers.

Operating System Requirements

Each computer that will be secondary server in the server farm must have the same or later operating system as the primary server, as shown in the following table:

Related Content

• Articles
• Microsoft Web Farm Framework 2.0 for IIS 7
• Overview of the Web Farm Framework 2.0 for IIS 7
• Web Farm Framework 2.0 for IIS 7 cmdlets for Windows PowerShell
• Setting up a Server Farm with the Web Farm Framework 2.0 for IIS 7

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