SharePoint 2010 - Added additional WFE to farm but can't access additional site collections

Question

My SharePoint setup is:

2 Web Front End servers, 1 of those WFE servers is also the application server then there is another server for my SQL database.

Server 2 which is the WFE and App Server combined is able to access all the site collections. Server 1 however can only access the root collection and is unable to access any other site collections I've created, Business Intelligence Centre for example.

To access the root collection I type in:

http://test1:100/ and I receive the Standard SharePoint team webpage.

If I alter the address to http://test2:100/ it opens up the same page without a problem.

When I navigate to http://test2:100/dept/bic/Pages/Default.aspx it opens with the BIC without a problem. As soon as I change the text from test2 to test1 then I get a 404 error. From what I've read I need to do some work in the Configure Alternate Access Mappings section under System Settings in Central Admin, however I'm lost at what I need to do in order for Server 1 to see this BIC site.

Here is an example of Server 2 accessing the home page, then the BIC

Now here is when I use Server 1 to access the home page, then the BIC

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

You're right about the alternate access mappings. Although some of the sites might respond like in your situation, SharePoint will only respond properly with an AAM configured for a given URL. In your case, when you have more than one web server, you need to use some kind of load balancer. You can look at using Windows Load Balancing services or you can work with your network team and use a hardware load balancer. Once you implement load balancing, you will create a new alternate access mapping with a new DNS name that will effectively point to both servers.