.NET Remoting and NLB ... some interesting links.
The following information is an extract from communication we are having with Microsoft as part of the Ascend initiative. Hope it adds some value to you as well ...
When using remoting, you cannot load balance across a server farm with the TcpChannel, due to the machine affinity of the underlying TCP connection. Have a look at the following articles:
Configurations That Microsoft Supports for Microsoft .NET Remoting with Network Load Balancing
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;830217
Improving Remoting Performance
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpag/html/scalenetchapt11.asp
So, the bottom line is:
1) You cannot load balance with the tcpChannel because it has machine affinity which comes from the caching of connections.
2) You can use NLB if you only use MarshalByValue objects.
3) You can use NLB for a single-call SOA provided you use the HTTP channel and host in IIS.
Review the following articles/blogs on some strategy regarding remoting and Indigo.
http://blogs.msdn.com/richardt/archive/2004/03/05/84771.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/richardt/archive/2004/03/05/84834.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/richardt/archive/2004/06/23/164201.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/richardt/archive/2004/07/21/190742.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/richardt/category/4119.aspx
Some Longhorn related stuff…
http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/support/lhdevfaq/default.aspx#Indigo