Is Windows Network Load Balancing (NLB) required in every new sharepoint 2013 farm?

Question

we have 5 Web Front End servers in our internet farm, and huge number of users daily 2000 users access our internet portal. in our org we have F5 Load balancer

1. Here what is the difference between Windows Network Load Balancing (NLB) and F5 load balancer, which one to use for as load balancer?

2. Is Windows Network Load Balancing (NLB) required in every new sharepoint 2013 farm?

Answer 1

WNLB is a very limited product. It supports only 4 servers in a WNLB 'farm' and does not perform service unavailability detection.

You do not need (nor want!) WNLB as you have the F5 LB already.

Answer 2

As you have F5 load balancer then no reason for the NLB. There is no requirement to use the NLB.

It is rarely recommended to use the NLB rather everyone prefer the hardware Loadbalancer (i.e. F5).

Good article for understanding: http://www.collabshow.com/2009/04/16/deciding-between-nlb-vs-hardware-load-balancing/

https://f5.com/resources/white-papers/the-shortfall-of-network-load-balancing