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Implementing a Load-Balanced Webserver?
Amoeba Protozoa asks: "How do I implement a load-balenced, layer 4 switching web-server? Would it be possible to mix O/Ss? Besides your incoming bandwidth, where do the bottlenecks occur? I would prefer to use Apache, Linux or BSD, and be able to utilize mod_perl or PHP to access a shared MySQL database. I would like to make this setup as scalable as possible."
If you like Apache, check out mod_backhand. It is a module load-balancer that is under development (but works well now) over at The Center for Networks and Distributed Systems at Johns Hopkins.
It is a module that incurs almost NO overhead. You can mark directories or locations with Load Balancing policies and BOOM. That is it. It communicates with other Apache servers via multicast and handles the rest. You can even plug in your own decision making algorithms. It is super simple to load balance cgi-scripts to some machines, mod_perl database script to another set and images based on a completely different policy. Or just use our default
It curently runs under Linux and Solaris, but the next release will support BSDI as well.
It is a software solution that can be combined with any hardware solution you choose (if you need that too). You can't loose with this. The install process and set up time combined is very minimal.
Of course, I am a little biased
-- Theo Schlossnagle
not if you use GIFs not encoded with the LZW algorithm. of course theyre bigger. but not all browsers support PNG. and JPG is still an option.