QlikView Load Balancing Scenarios
OverviewThis document shows several scenarios for load balancing clustered servers with
QlikView 9 and above. It is intended to act as a guide for discussions and
architecture planning for large deployments. These scenarios are not best
practices, but are instead examples of configurations that provide distinct
advantages for different scalability scenarios.
The subsequent pages in this document describe the scenarios. Please note: while
all of these scenarios depict two (2) QlikView Servers clustered together, the same
capabilities apply to clusters of 3-to-n servers. A 2-server cluster was shown on
each scenario to simplify the diagram and discussion to the relevant points.
It is assumed that the audience is familiar with the QlikView architecture and
clustering concepts prior to reading these scenarios.
Author: BPN, QlikTech NA
© 2010 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice.
This publication is for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and QlikTech shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to this publication. The only warranties for QlikTech products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any additional warranty.
QlikView Load Balancing Scenarios
Key Features of QlikView for Load BalancingLoad balancing has been available with QlikView prior to version 9, but it required external
hardware and software to make it work, namely an NLB or switch device to determine the load
balancing methodology and to route the traffic accordingly.
With QlikView 9 and above, the QlikView AccessPoint now has the capability of performing
most of these capabilities for us, and goes beyond the traditional features with its new
document awareness capability. The ability for the AccessPoint to determine whether or not a
document is already loaded in memory on each of the clustered servers means that it can now
accommodate unbalanced clusters of servers. Meaning, we can take advantage of certain
applications (QlikView documents) only residing on some of the servers and not others.
This allows us to configure clusters that provide the traditional failover and redundancy, but
can also be dedicated to certain applications. It is important to note that when an application
(QlikView document) is loaded on one server but not the other server in a cluster, the server
with the application loaded in memory will receive all of the sessions requesting that
application, until that server has no availability, at which time the other server will load the
application into memory and begin serving requested sessions. The pre-loading of
applications into the servers is what drives this behavior. This functionality is not yet built into
the QlikView Management Console. This means manual pre-loading or an external process
to pre-load will be needed until this feature is integrated into the QEMC.
Scenarios 1 and 2 are the most popular with large QlikView deployments, but the other
scenarios are also useful when dealing with more specific technical requirements.
Author: BPN, QlikTech NA
© 2010 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice.
This publication is for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and QlikTech shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to this publication. The only warranties for QlikTech products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any additional warranty.
SAN/NAS/Shared Disk
QlikView Load Balancing Scenarios
Goal is equal distribution of load
When you need high availability and
resiliency both
When the web traffic for AJAX clients
and custom web apps is light enough to
not need dedicated AccessPoints
Server Availability
Round robin
Session counts
RAM/CPU available
When would you use this:
Pros:
Cons:
Scenario #1:
Balanced cluster utilizing NLB or switch and resident AccessPoints
Equally distributes load based on any
of the methodologies in diagram
Can use most NLB and switch
technologies
One AccessPoint can go down and the
cluster still runs
Needs load balancing hardware/
software
This scenario uses AccessPoint
resident on each server, causing some
cannibalization of RAM/CPU for web
services
Users
QlikView Apps: A,B,C,D,E
Balance Methods:
NLB Device(s)
or Switch
Apps A,B,C,D,E
pre-loaded
Apps A,B,C,D,E
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 1 QlikView Server 2
AccessPoint 1 AccessPoint 2
Author: BPN, QlikTech NA
© 2010 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice.
This publication is for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and QlikTech shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to this publication. The only warranties for QlikTech products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any additional warranty.
Note: AccessPoints are
resident on the QlikView
servers in this scenario
SAN/NAS/Shared Disk
QlikView Load Balancing Scenarios
Goal is equal distribution of load
When you need high availability and
resiliency both
When the web traffic for AJAX clients
and custom web apps is heavy enough
to need dedicated AccessPoints
Server Availability
Round robin
Session counts
RAM/CPU available
When would you use this:
Pros:
Cons:
Scenario #2:
Balanced cluster utilizing NLB or switch and dedicated AccessPoints
Equally distributes load based on any
of the methodologies in diagram
Can use most NLB and switch
technologies
One AccessPoint can go down and the
cluster still runs
Web traffic processing separated from
QlikView servers, given them more
processing capacity for QVWs
Needs load balancing hardware/
software
Need servers for AccessPoint (virtual
or physical)
Users
QlikView Apps: A,B,C,D,E
Balance Methods:
NLB Device(s)
or Switch
Apps A,B,C,D,E
pre-loaded
Apps A,B,C,D,E
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 1 QlikView Server 2
Author: BPN, QlikTech NA
© 2010 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice.
This publication is for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and QlikTech shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to this publication. The only warranties for QlikTech products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any additional warranty.
AccessPoint 1 AccessPoint 2
Note: AccessPoint
servers are separate
from QlikView Servers
in this scenario
SAN/Shared Disk
Server sizes are the same
Goal is equal distribution of load
Don’t want to use NLB or switch
Server Availability
Round robin
RAM available
Document load
status
When would you use this:
Pros:
Cons:
Scenario #3:
Balanced cluster utilizing QlikView AccessPoint
Equally distributes load based on
methodologies in diagram
No additional hardware/software
needed as this is standard with
QlikView Server
Doesn’t favor one server over the other
if they are of different sizes
Single AccessPoint is a potential single
point of failure
Users
QlikView Apps: A,B,C,D,E
Balance Methods:
Apps A,B,C,D,E
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 1
AccessPoint
Apps A,B,C,D,E
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 2
QlikView Load Balancing Scenarios
Author: BPN, QlikTech NA
© 2010 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice.
This publication is for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and QlikTech shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to this publication. The only warranties for QlikTech products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any additional warranty.
Note: AccessPoint can
be on dedicated server
or resident on one of the
two QlikView Servers in
the diagram
Goal is primary server with clustered
secondary server providing failover
Primary server RAM/CPU sufficient for
all production sessions
When would you use this:
Pros:
Cons:
Scenario #4:
Full failover cluster utilizing QlikView AccessPoint
No additional hardware/software
needed as this is standard with
QlikView Server
Not utilizing secondary server unless
primary server maxes RAM/CPU or
becomes unavailable
Single AccessPoint is a potential single
point of failure
QlikView Load Balancing Scenarios
Author: BPN, QlikTech NA
© 2010 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice.
This publication is for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and QlikTech shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to this publication. The only warranties for QlikTech products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any additional warranty.
SAN/Shared Disk
Server Availability
Round robin
RAM available
Document load
status
Users
QlikView Apps: A,B,C,D,E
Balance Methods:
Apps A,B,C,D,E
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 1
AccessPoint
No apps pre-
loaded
QlikView Server 2
Note: AccessPoint can
be on dedicated server
or resident on one of the
two QlikView Servers in
the diagram
Dedicate sessions for apps A & B to
Server1, sessions for apps D & E to
Server2, and app C to both servers
equally
One server may be larger than the other
and might be dedicated to the larger
apps in this scenario, while still partially
sharing the load on common apps
When would you use this:
Pros:
Cons:
Scenario #5:
Unbalanced AccessPoint cluster with overlap
Can take advantage of committing
larger apps to larger servers
Failover still accommodated on both
servers
No additional hardware/software
needed as this is standard with
QlikView Server
Need to manually load apps A & B on
just Server 1 and apps D & E on just
Server 2
Unbalanced cluster means one of the
servers could reach max capacity
before loading app on the other server
and sharing load
Single AccessPoint is a potential single
point of failure
QlikView Load Balancing Scenarios
Author: BPN, QlikTech NA
© 2010 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice.
This publication is for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and QlikTech shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to this publication. The only warranties for QlikTech products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any additional warranty.
SAN/Shared Disk
Server Availability
Round robin
RAM available
Document load
status
Users
QlikView Apps: A,B,C,D,E
Balance Methods:
Apps A,B,C
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 1
AccessPoint
Apps C,D,E
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 2
Note: AccessPoint can
be on dedicated server
or resident on one of the
two QlikView Servers in
the diagram
Server1 is larger than Server2, but you
still want to cluster them to distribute
some of the load and provide failover
When would you use this:
Pros:
Cons:
Scenario #6:
Unbalanced AccessPoint cluster with subset
Can take advantage of committing
larger apps to larger servers
Failover still accommodated on both
servers
No additional hardware/software
needed as this is standard with
QlikView Server
Need to manually load apps D & E on
just Server 1
Unbalanced cluster means one of the
servers could reach max capacity
before loading app on the other server
and sharing load
Single AccessPoint is a potential single
point of failure
QlikView Load Balancing Scenarios
Author: BPN, QlikTech NA
© 2010 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice.
This publication is for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and QlikTech shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to this publication. The only warranties for QlikTech products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any additional warranty.
SAN/Shared Disk
Server Availability
Round robin
RAM available
Document load
status
Users
QlikView Apps: A,B,C,D,E
Balance Methods:
Apps A,B,C,D,E
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 1
AccessPoint
Apps A,B,C
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 2
Note: AccessPoint can
be on dedicated server
or resident on one of the
two QlikView Servers in
the diagram
When each server is owned by a separate
department and they want to maintain
their own performance
One server is much larger than the others
and can accommodate larger apps
When would you use this:
Pros:
Cons:
Scenario #7:
Mutually Exclusive Cluster
Failover still accommodated on both
servers
More predictable performance and
scaling if audiences are separate for
servers
Manual pre-loading of apps is needed
for each server
Unbalanced cluster means one of the
servers could reach max capacity
before loading app on the other server
and sharing load
Single AccessPoint is a potential single
point of failure
QlikView Load Balancing Scenarios
Author: BPN, QlikTech NA
© 2010 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. QlikTech, QlikView, Qlik, Q, Simplifying Analysis for Everyone, Power of Simplicity, New Rules, The Uncontrollable Smile and other QlikTech products and services as well as their respective logos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB. All other company names, products and services used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The information published herein is subject to change without notice.
This publication is for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and QlikTech shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to this publication. The only warranties for QlikTech products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any additional warranty.
SAN/Shared Disk
Server Availability
Round robin
RAM available
Document load
status
Users
QlikView Apps: A,B,C,D,E
Balance Methods:
Apps A,B,C
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 1
AccessPoint
Apps D, E
pre-loaded
QlikView Server 2
Note: AccessPoint can
be on dedicated server
or resident on one of the
two QlikView Servers in
the diagram