clustering linux servers in unreliable conditions

Hi,

In a fit of insanity had put up with the idea of building a cluster for
once. By now i don't think a cluster-as-such is not the concept i'm
looking for.

What i Am looking for is a way to connect multiple machines across a
cable-modem network (public-isp) so i can configure them all as if it was
one webserver.

Anyone any clues on what to do, and if, this is at all a viable option ?

For now i came up with UML running vserver with apache on top of that, but
i'm bound to get into to trouble if i just start experimenting on the few
live machines i have working now (in stand-alone mode).

Thank you for your time.

--
Best Regards,

Dr. Chandra

"Dr. Chandra" <drchandra@_LOSE-SP4M_pandora.be> wrote in message
newsan.2004.02.06.17.33.29.661565@_LOSE-SP4M_pandora.be...
> Hi,
>
> In a fit of insanity had put up with the idea of building a cluster for
> once. By now i don't think a cluster-as-such is not the concept i'm
> looking for.
>
> What i Am looking for is a way to connect multiple machines across a
> cable-modem network (public-isp) so i can configure them all as if it was
> one webserver.
>
> Anyone any clues on what to do, and if, this is at all a viable option ?
>
> For now i came up with UML running vserver with apache on top of that, but
> i'm bound to get into to trouble if i just start experimenting on the few
> live machines i have working now (in stand-alone mode).
>
> Thank you for your time.
>
> --
> Best Regards,
>
> Dr. Chandra
>

Dr. C;

I personally have not done this. However, in my Microsoft world we set up
2 servers clustered with one shared data storage area (on a third server)
where the web site would reside. I believe this is the same proceedure for
Linux.

Doug

On Sat, 07 Feb 2004 01:17:02 +0000, Doug Holtz NOSPAM in adress wrote:

>
> "Dr. Chandra" <drchandra@_LOSE-SP4M_pandora.be> wrote in message
> newsan.2004.02.06.17.33.29.661565@_LOSE-SP4M_pandora.be...
>> Hi,
>>
>> In a fit of insanity had put up with the idea of building a cluster for
>> once. By now i don't think a cluster-as-such is not the concept i'm
>> looking for.
>>
>> What i Am looking for is a way to connect multiple machines across a
>> cable-modem network (public-isp) so i can configure them all as if it
>> was one webserver.
>>
>> Anyone any clues on what to do, and if, this is at all a viable option ?
>>
>> For now i came up with UML running vserver with apache on top of that,
>> but i'm bound to get into to trouble if i just start experimenting on
>> the few live machines i have working now (in stand-alone mode).
>>
>> Thank you for your time.
>>
>> --
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Dr. Chandra
>>
>>
> Dr. C;
>
> I personally have not done this. However, in my Microsoft world we set
> up 2 servers clustered with one shared data storage area (on a third
> server) where the web site would reside. I believe this is the same
> proceedure for Linux.
>
> Doug

Not quite but thanks anyway. I'm talking about a regular cable-modem
network provided by an ISP (4MB downstream/128kbps upstream). As such the
cluster is (if at all manageable to evaluate) going to be separated by
rather large physical distances.

In the meantime i've done some looking up on Openmosix wich offers some
really interesting features for this wannabe-project. There are a number
of ready-to-run linux-clustering solutions wich i believe are quite
interesting, maybe the most interesting part of this is the ability to
test this with the now famous live-cd's. No need to install simply insert
cd, configure and run the cluster.

The type of clustering you're talking about is not very scalable, given
what i still remember from Microsoft products. What this
openmosix-clustering can provide somewhat resembles a grid-like
architecture like seen in seti-at-home-clients etc.

But much more flexible ;-) Imagine running your whole network (more or
less) as one big server with just a handfull of ip's, after working hours
or even during working hours because the extra cpu cycles can be spared.

I hope the lengthy reply didn't bother you.


--
Best Regards,

Dr. Chandra

"Dr. Chandra" <drchandra@_LOSE-SP4M_pandora.be> wrote in message
newsan.2004.02.06.17.33.29.661565@_LOSE-SP4M_pandora.be...
> Hi,
>
> In a fit of insanity had put up with the idea of building a cluster for
> once. By now i don't think a cluster-as-such is not the concept i'm
> looking for.
>
> What i Am looking for is a way to connect multiple machines across a
> cable-modem network (public-isp) so i can configure them all as if it was
> one webserver.
>
> Anyone any clues on what to do, and if, this is at all a viable option ?

If you are looking for fail-over reliability and the ability to server
sheer volume with all of the servers having the same content
just arrange for DNS to return all of the IP numbers involved
through multiple A records for the name. Normally the DNS
server will rotate the address list on each lookup and the client
will try the first address in the list, although that isn't really required.
IE and probably most other browsers are pretty good at re-trying
the other addresses in the list if the connection to the first one
fails. If your web server needs to maintain state for sessions on
the server side the scheme doesn't work at all but you could still
use it for images and parts that don't need session state by using
a different name in the references. Balancing won't be perfect but
the bigger the number of clients the better the statistics work out.

---
Les Mikesell
(E-Mail Removed)

"Dr. Chandra" <drchandra@_LOSE-SP4M_pandora.be> wrote in message news:<pan.2004.02.06.17.33.29.661565@_LOSE-SP4M_pandora.be>...
> Hi,
>
> In a fit of insanity had put up with the idea of building a cluster for
> once. By now i don't think a cluster-as-such is not the concept i'm
> looking for.
>
> What i Am looking for is a way to connect multiple machines across a
> cable-modem network (public-isp) so i can configure them all as if it was
> one webserver.
>

Sounds a bit like you want load-balancing.

check out: http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/

or maybe: http://www.linux-ha.org/