Webfarms: The Only Way To Host!

 Networks can be configured to be so incredibly redundant now - for reasonable prices - that there is no excuse for a data center not to achieve five nines (99.999%) of availability.

But what about the servers and applications? Why spend so much time up front configuring the network to make sure it doesn't fail, and then deploy an application to a single server?

Sure, there are ways to make sure individual servers have some redundancy to minimize failures -- things like RAID1, RAID5, or RAID10 (redundant array of inexpensive disks) which will protect against a disk drive failure (and I highly recommend this type of configuration for all production servers - and preferably the use of hardware RAID vs. software RAID). But what happens if a file gets corrupt on the RAID array? Or a recent configuration change brings the application down? Or a newly released patch conflicts with other settings and causes problems? Well, in these situations the server will go down and the application(s) hosted on that server will be offline.

A good monitoring and alerting process will allow the system administrator to detect and address these issues quickly, but still there will be some level of downtime associated with the issue. And depending on the type of issue, even the best system administrator might not be able to immediately resolve the issue - it may take time. Time during which your application is unavailable and you may be losing business due to the site interruption.

So, what can you do?

A great option - and one that has recently become more affordable - is to host your application on a webfarm. A webfarm consists of two or more web servers with the same configuration, and that serve up the same content. There are special switches and processes involved that allow each of these servers to respond to a request to a single location. For example, say we have two servers - svr1.orcsweb.com and svr2.orcsweb.com - that have 100% the same configuration and content. We could configure a special switch* to handle traffic that is sent to www.orcsweb.com and redirect the traffic to either of these nodes depending on some routing logic. All clients visiting the main URL (in this case www.orcsweb.com) have no idea whether this is a single server - or ten servers! The balancing between nodes is seamless and transparent.

[*note: There is also software that could handle the routing process but experience and test have shown that these types of solutions are generally not as scalable, fast, or efficient as the hardware switch solutions]

The routing logic can be a number of different options - most common are:

* Round-robin: Each node gets a request sent to it "in turn". So, node1 gets a request, then node2 again, then node1, then node2 again.
* Least Active: Whichever node shows to have the lowest number of current connects gets new connects sent to it. This is good to help keep the load balanced between the server nodes.
* Fastest Reply: Whichever node replies faster is the one that gets new requests. This is also a good option - especially if there are nodes that might not be "equal" in performance. If one performs much better than the other, why not send more requests there?

In any of these scenarios the switch will also detect if a node were to fail. So, if svr1.orcsweb.com was taken offline for maintenance - or it had a critical failure - the switch would detect that and only send traffic to svr2.orcsweb.com. And since the clients always access the site via the main URL (not the node names) they have no idea that one of the nodes is down - the application continues to serve client requests seamlessly.

Besides high-availability (continuing to satisfy requests during a failure), a webfarm also gives an application a higher level of scalability - the ability to handle more and more load. If load increased on the application to the point where performance started to degrade, more nodes could be added to the webfarm (again, without clients noticing), giving the ability to handle potentially unlimited levels of traffic (just keep adding nodes!).

Of course there are a lot of factors surrounding the proper support of a webfarm - the switches, fail over between switches (don't let the switch be a single point-of-failure!), replication of content, synchronization of server changes, synchronization of application changes, etc, etc.. But a good system administrator (or experienced hosting company) can help address all of these issues for you.

By the way, I need to slip in a plug for a related service we offer :-) Webfarm hosting starting as low as $199/month! Check it out at: http://www.orcsweb.com/WebFarm.aspx

Hopefully this has been a good introduction to webfarms for you, and hopefully I've properly communicated enough of the benefits for you to consider this as a hosting option for yourself. With the rates now down to affordable levels - why not get this additional layer of protection?

Happy hosting!

~Brad

Brad Kingsley is President and Founder of ORCS Web, Inc. - a company that provides managed hosting services for clients who develop and deploy their applications on Microsoft Windows platforms.

About the Author

Brad Kingsley is President and Founder of ORCS Web, Inc. - a company that provides managed hosting services for clients who develop and deploy their applications on Microsoft Windows platforms.

 Brad Kingsley

More Articles 

Dedicated Server: Smart Web Hosting Choice - Paras Shah
Author: Paras Shah Email: paras@vippowernet.com Website: http://www.vipwh.com Hosting your personal or business web sites on your own dedicated server may seems expensive choice in comparison to shared web hosting, but at the end, it proves a...

VIP PowerNet (VIPWH) Launches Windows Web Hosting - Paras Shah
VIP PowerNet, Inc., one of the nation's leading Internet service providers, today announced the addition of a Windows-based solution to its suite of business class Web hosting services. Geared toward small businesses, the new Web hosting product is...

Web Hosts: Helping Us Navigate Through This Future Techno-World - Jesse S Somer
Computers, Internet, Web sites…what do they all mean? Hey, you’re probably not a technophobe, I mean you own a microwave right? Just push a few buttons and the food cooks itself-easy. Now, they tell you the best way to share information, have a...

Choosing Your Web Hosting Reseller Software - Lois S
As a web host reseller, one of your most important business decisions is your choice of web hosting control panel software. The web hosting software you use will save or cost you time, money, and frustration. What reseller control panel features...

Web Hosting Server - What to look for - Brian Thorn
As with any service, the question of what to look for in server hosting packages depends largely on the goals you have. If you have a company in need of a server host, your needs are naturally going to be much different than if you are an individual...

How to Consider a Web Host? - Ross Dalangin
Now that your website was built. Your next task is to find a web hosting company that will not cost you more money and time. More money if the hosting fee is expensive and more time if you failed in selecting a good web host, you may try to find...

How to succeed as a web host reseller - Luis Peres
Web hosting services are in very high demand and therefore any re-seller who knows what they are doing can make a bundle quickly without too much trouble. However, just like in any other business, one needs to be cautious and to be very much aware...

Where to Get Cheap Web Hosting - Jay Moncliff
If you are looking for a cheap web hosting company you may wish to know where to look. Cheap web hosting is available to anyone. But the cost of it depends on several factors. For some people, it may be impossible to get cheap web hosting. You will...

Steps to becoming a web host reseller - Staff WebsiteSource com
Steps to becoming a web host reseller You’ve decided to get a reseller web hosting account to resell web space. What now? Here’s a step-by-step guide. 1. Choose the platform you want to use. More open source software programs...

How to choose a Hosting Web Package Cheap - Dale Ronewicz
If you're looking for a hosting web package cheap there are many things to consider. To find a hosting web package cheap you really need to do your homework and search the internet for the right host for you. But beware, just because a company might...

Choosing the right web host - Philip Wylie
Whatever type of website you want to host, choosing the correct host can be tricky. Most hosting companies offer you more than you will ever use, their sales staff recommend high-end packages for small websites. Be careful when choosing, you...

Linux vs. Windows web Hosting, does it make a difference? - Daniel Punch
One of the most confusing decisions someone new to web hosting will have to make is which platform their server should be on. There are a number of different choices out there but the main two are Linux and Windows web servers. There are also a lot...