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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The requested URL was not found on this server"The requested URL /file.html was not found on this server. Apache/1.3.14 Server at www.yourdomain.com Port 80".
Does that look familiar? If you've ever accidentally tried to access a page that doesn't exist, possibly by following an outdated link or by misspelling the name of the page, you've probably seen something like the above appear on your screen. You might have attempted to correct the error by checking the URL for mistakes, but it is even more likely that you just clicked "Back" and returned where you came from, never visiting the site again.
For a surfer, encountering a "404 page" is a nuisance. For a webmaster, they can be far more problematic, causing a reduction in traffic which in turn means losing a part of the precious advertising revenues or sales the site's life depends on. You can minimize the amount of 404 errors by periodically checking your pages for broken links, but it is impossible to get completely rid of them. So, what can you do?
The solution - Custom 404 pages ===============================
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