clustering question.......

[pete wright]

On 4/18/06, Charles Swiger <cswiger at mac.com> wrote:
> On Apr 18, 2006, at 12:05 PM, Wright Jim Contr 14MDSS/SGSI wrote:
> > Hallo !
> >
> > I'm sure there is some info on this, but I can't seem to find it.
> >
> > I guess what I'm looking for is the "FreeBSD Clustering for Dummies"
> > guide.
>
> Dummies aren't qualified to set up a cluster, I'm afraid.
>
> You should start by determining what services the system needs to
> provide, what kind of reliability and uptime is desired, and what the
> budget is for hardware and software.  If the budget is less than mid
> 5-digits (compare to low-to-mid 6-digits if doing Windows, say a
> clustered SQLServer solution), you aren't going to be able to
> configure a "true cluster" [1] with no single point of failure.
>

i'd say that figure may be a little high, but i agree with your
sentiment.  you could "easily" create a web server cluster by putting
your httpd nodes behind a software load balancer (a BSD box running
PF/CARP or somesuch solution), and you would have created a cluster of
web servers that will provide you with a reasonable amount of
redundancy.  this will provide one form of clustering.

granted, this is just one type of clustering computers together -
which is much differnet than say building a farm of machines to
compute data in unison.

-pete



--
~~o0OO0o~~
Pete Wright
www.nycbug.org
NYC's *BSD User Group