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At 4:18 PM +0100 12/11/99, Jona Tallieu (T & T n.v.) wrote:
Re: Load balancing
From: Men & Mice Support
Date: Monday, December 13, 1999
Time: 2:38:00 am
>I don't know if this is the "on topic" on this list, bit I've heard a
>lot about load balancing on this list, so...
>
>my question:
>
>We've got a main webserver running web*4.1. Sometimes
>(for a yeat unknow reason) Filemaker crashes the machine
>(G4/400).
>What I would like is that, if the main server is down, a backup
>server just displays a message for all the domains I host
>saying: "we are upgrading our system, please come back
>in a couple of hours".
>
>Is this possible with load balancing? Problem is probably that
>the load balancing can only kick in if the main server is completely
>down, because the second server does not have the sites and files
>that the main server has...
The system isn't really designed to do this. You can fake it, though, as follows:
o Set up load balancing as if both servers were main servers, but with fixed preferences that send most traffic to the real main server. Of course, if one server goes down, the other picks up all the traffic.
o On the backup server, don't have any of the regular files (including default.html) - remove all the stuff WebSTAR comes with. Create a custom error page that is processed by a scripting tool such as WebSiphon. Your custom error page simply attempts to get the requested page off the main server (using HTTP protocol - the main server gets a duplicated hit); if it fails, it gives the "server being upgraded" message instead.
A visitor who hits the backup server gets slower performance, but not by much. You might be able to use some sort of global variable to limit the frequency of checks on the status of the main server if the main server is down. You might also be able to set up a ping test to determine if the main server is down. There's room for much elaboration and sophistication.
____________________________________________________________________
Chris Buxton cbuxton@menandmice.com
Men & Mice http://www.menandmice.com
Makers of: QuickDNS Pro
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