Webfarms II: Balancing The Load. Okay, so you understand webfarms now. What's the magic that actually distributes the load, and how does it determine how the distribution is handled?
At ORCS Web we use the Foundry Server Iron products to perform our webfarm load-balancing. If one of them fails, the other instantly takes over (In our testing, it had sub-second fail-over!)
So what is this "Server Iron" thing? In simplest terms, it's a layer 4-7 switch. It has multiple network ports on it and can be used literally like other types of switches. But, it can also load-balancing and traffic distribution. A VIP (virtual IP) can be assigned to the SI (Server Iron) and it then handles all traffic sent to that address/VIP. Further configuration is done to tell the SI what to actually do with the traffic sent to the VIP address.
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To Share or Not to Share?
Breal Web Design
This article may be published electronically or in print, free of charge, without alteration to any content and the resource box at the end of the article is included in it's entirity without alteration. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.To Share or Not to Share a Web Host? ***********************************************************
When looking for a hosting solution for your web site you'll discover you have the choice of shared or dedicated hosting. This article will breifly explain the difference between them.
Shared hosting is what it says it is. Your web site shares a server with other web sites. You don't have access to the other web sites files, they don't have access to yours and you don't share a domain name. What you do share is the machine and the scripts that are pre-installed on it. Why would you do this?
Because it's cheaper.
As you can understand, the cost of setting up a server machine is not inexpensive. Even relatively large web sites are only a few hundred megabytes, so today's computers with multiple hard drives are easily able to handle the space. There can be as many as one or two hundred web sites on a shared server.
You'll find there are different platforms available in shared hosting too. You will find you can have Unix/Linux or Windows NT/2000 as your platform. You don't have to choose the platform your PC is running. This has nothing to do with what the server needs to operate on. Unix platforms are very stable and are perfect if you have a site using mostly HTML pages, PHP or CGI. If you are using scripting such as Active Server Pages, have designed your web site using FrontPage, or need access to a Microsoft Access or SQL Server database, you need a Windows platform.
Shared hosting usually comes with a heap of extras and most are included in the price. You can get email, auto-oresponders, pre-installed scripts including counters and mail scripts, password protected directories, your own cgi-bin, browser based control panels, secure directories and more. Check the options to see that you are getting what you need.
However, if you need complete control of your server, you need a dedicated server. Obviously if you're not going to share the server with anyone, it is going to be more expensive.
Dedicated servers are usually only required by experienced developers. If you're not sure if you need a dedicated server, then you probably only need shared hosting. If you're in doubt, contact the company you are considering hosting with and ask them about their products in detail.
Breal provides cost effective web site design and hosting with a full 30 day money back guarantee. Web hosting even comes with six months free hosting on yearly accounts. To find out more visit http://www.brealweb.com For a complete list of current articles, send any email to mailto:articlelist@brealweb.com
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1 Simple Step Towards Improved Customer Satisfaction for Web Hosts Most of your customers are not unreasonable sort of people. They understand that problems crop up and mistakes do happen. I don't know about you, but I know that I am a MUCH more reasonable customer when the company I am purchasing services or products from promptly communicates any problems that arise.
The web is all about communication, so you would assume that any company that makes web hosting its primary business should really understand this and put measures into place that allows for the most reliable and uninterrupted communication with their customers. We talked about this a bit in our last article and promised to give you some tips about methods we have implemented to increase our ability to communicate with our customers during emergencies.
Let's face it, there isn't a web host out there who hasn't experienced times where the server that their company web site is on has gone down. Sometimes only for a few minutes, but sometimes those minutes can turn into hours - or even days if a major piece of hardware has gone belly up on you. And in most cases, you don't dedicate an entire server to your domain - you have customers who also share that server. Customers who now are not only unable to gain access to THEIR domain, but can not reach yours either. They are effectively cut off from electronic communication with you. So what do they do? How can they find out what is going on with their web site, and more importantly, when it will be back online?
Some hosts, like AlphaOne Technology, have emergency support available by telephone. In that case, (if they can remember the phone number since they can not access your website to find the number), they begin calling. And calling. And calling. Usually there are over 100-200 customers hosted on a single server. Do you or your staff really have the time to be fielding that many phone calls when you are in the middle of a crisis and need to devote your time to fixing the problem and getting the server operational? Probably not. Nor do your customers want to spend time on hold or dealing with busy signals. Every minute on hold, or every call that results in a busy signal, leaves a bad impression with that customer. They want to know WHY they are down and they want to know NOW.
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