IIS ARR
AND
WAP

What is LoadMaster?
• Application delivery controller appliance
• Available as hardware appliance or virtual system
• Wide range of load balancing algorithms
• Can be deployed as highly available pairs
• Can switch traffic based on content
• Includes caching and compression
• Active Directory, RADIUS and two-factor
authentication
• Free version available

Feature Comparison
Features LoadMaster IIS ARR WAP
Load Balancing Y Y1 Y1
HTTP based
routing Y Y N
Server Name
Indication Y Y N
Intrusion
Protection Y N N
High Availability
(HA Pair) Y N2 N2
GEO
Functionality Y N N
1 – can load balance HTTP workloads only
2 – requires external mechanism to achieve HA

What is ARR?
• IIS Extension designed for request routing (similar to
KEMP’s content switching but not as powerful)
• Performs load balancing functions for HTTP requests only
• Cookie based and host based affinity
• Six load balance algorithms
• Weighed RR, Weighed total Traffic, Least current request,
Server variable hash, Query string hash, Request hash
• Requires external mechanism for high availability
(NLB or HLB)
• Also provides caching functionality

What is WAP?
• Web Application Proxy included with Windows Server
2012 R2
• ADFS is hard requirement for installation
• No basic or NTLM pre-authentication
• Requires external mechanism for high availability, no
official guidance for HA exists
• No information on persistence and load balancing
mechanisms
• Seems limited to HTTP based workloads only
• Very thin documentation