This is the official release for ARR Version 1 for IIS7 and it is now fully supported by Microsoft Support. 

Overview:ARR Version 1 for IIS7 is a proxy based routing module that forwards HTTP requests to content servers based on HTTP headers and server variables, and load balance algorithms.  It is designed for web server administrators and hosting providers and to increase Web application reliability and scalability.  ARR also enables shared hosters to maximize resource utilization on application servers and reduce management costs for server farms. 

• Balance web requests more efficiently across servers to maximize resource utilization.
• Increase Security and Scalability of Application Servers.
• Optimize and scale server capacity through client and host name affinity. 

 Download the RTW release from:

• Microsoft Application Request Routing Version 1 for IIS 7 x86
• Microsoft Application Request Routing Version 1 for IIS 7 x64  

 

What’s new in RTW:

• Host name affinity providers: Optimize and manage how to affinitize host names.
• Round Robin provider.
• Memory based provider.
• Contextual online help: Targeted help contents.
• Manual override of health status: Web server administrators can manually override the results from URL and live traffic tests.
• Specify port numbers on application servers: Using the UI, HTTP and HTTPS ports can be defined for application servers.
• Improved least response time load balance algorithm.
• Support readiness: Support is provided by Microsoft Support. 

 Documentation:

• Install Application Request Routing
• Define and Configure an Application Request Routing Server Group
• HTTP Load Balancing using Application Request Routing
  • Includes using health monitoring and client affinity
• Configure 3-tier deployment architecture using Application Request Routing
• Pilot Program Management using Application Request Routing
• Shared Hosting using Application Request Routing
  • Memory based provider
  • Using Microsoft External Cache for IIS7
• Using Failed Request Tracing Rules to Troubleshoot Application Request Routing
• High availability at ARR tier
  • ARR and NLB
  • ARR and Hardware Load Balancer

 Support:

• The support is now provided by Microsoft Support.
• The existing ARR forum will continue to exist and the product team will continue to moderate the forum.