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Using Rackspace load balancer for website high availability

I have tested tomcat specific clustering with apache mod_jk and mod_proxy on ubuntu local VMs for our website high availability and load balancing. The real servers are hosted by Rackspace cloud server provider. I tested tomcat clustering with 1 load balancer and 2 web servers. Single load balancer is again a single point of failure.

In Rackspace there is an option Load Balancers and here is the link which guides how setting up load balancer which I am not sure to setup because of some doubts as I never did before anytime.

Could anybody recommend me step-by-step what I should and what I shouldn't with only necessary resource avoiding unnecessary costs?

The following are the things which I'm not sure and requesting someone who is already using Rackspace help me out here in setting up load balancing:

- I want to add atleast 4 machines, 2 as web servers, 1 as load balancer server and one more as Failover load balancer server. I think I can add new machines from the Rackspace Load Balancer option?

- I just heard that one could cut down the cost of static IPs by setting up the cluster in LAN assigning private ip address to cluster computers and thus I can cut down bandwidth costs too. Is it really possible to join cluster computers in a LAN in Rackspace?

- As far as I know I will point the domain name(website name) to the Load Balancer in the DNS where the domain is registered and both the LBs should have Static Public IP assigned(i'm thinking I'm right here). As I already said I want to add one more LB to avoid single point of failure, Is there any option in Rackspace where I can point the website domain to both the LBs so that only one is active and if active fails, it should point to another LB(similar to ip failover) so that I can make it zero-down-time website?.

I request if possible if anybody give me step-by-step list on how to do them in Rackspace with your own recommendations on what I should and shouldn't.

Thank you in advance!

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David Johnson, CD

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they don't have to be public ip's they can be private

I was thinking all the computers will be in LAN and apart from this with 2 public ips each for the Load balancers. If no public IP then it won't be accessible globally. Oh.. I think you mean to say only one public ip is enough to be shared?. Ah.. I am again confused here that what if I want to host one more website in the same cluster(we've many sites). Is might be possible pointing website domains to more than one server(load balancers) having assigned a public ip address to the load balancers each?. I need your help here again, please!

Question where will you put the 2nd load balancer? and how will it know to be active?

Doesn't cloud providers(Rackspace) have any technique to do ip failover in case the primary server is down?. I don't know much of cloud servers and so no idea of amazon but my office uses Rackspace cloud provider. If no way to do ip failover from Rackspace, I should use the heartbeat for failover and before that I should check how doing it. Of course if it's again SPOF if primary server fails and I was thinking I'll get the primary server back to working!

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For the first Quote: I mean to say either IP Failover or Round Robin as I have we have more than one site hosting?

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any updates?

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David Johnson, CD

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thanks for the clarification!.

- I just heard that one could cut down the cost of static IPs by setting up the cluster in LAN assigning private ip address to cluster computers and thus I can cut down bandwidth costs too. Is it really possible to join cluster computers in a LAN in Rackspace?

- I heard Rackspace offers to share an ip between computers, is that so? in this case should I mention that shared public ip in network interfaces on both the LBs? may be as virtual ip(eth0:0)?

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David Johnson, CD

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No, not for myself, with one public ip shared between load balancers and pointing all the site domains(DNS) to this shared public ip. Is this possible?. If possible I can cut down number of public ip costs and their bandwith.

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I was thinking the setup like all the computer(web servers & load balancers) in a LAN with some network(192.168.x.x) using eth0 interface. For load balancers, for the interface eth0:0 or eth1, a public ip is shared and mod_proxy & mod_jk on load balancers redirect them to web servers as they could be in same network(192.168.x.x).

After some analysis I realized that I could not directly access the web servers as they don't have the public ip assigned and again I thought of adding some like 'ProxyPass /web1 http://web1-ip-here' on the LBs. But again to update or to install some packages on web server, need internet connection. I am again wondering if there is an option to connect web server to WAN with single public ip on LBs and if so it works with no issue. Else I have to use public ip for web servers

ASKER

Ok, web servers has public ip address each and is it possible having no public ip assigned to LBs but a shared public ip between them along with internal ip(private)?.

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David Johnson, CD

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Yeah got it!. One thing I want to know if i'ts possible. That is, I share an public ip between LBs, doest it require another static public for each LB?. In Rackspace, by default a public & a private ip is assigned to servers I am thinking if it's possible to ommit public ip assigned for LBs? so that I can avoid 2 public ip cost on LBs and share a single public ip between LBs. And I can access the LBs or point site domain name to this shared ip.

Please let me know if it's possible to avoid default public ip on LBs, else I've to pay for 2 public ips(on LBs) along with shared ip.

ASKER

what is rackspace doing for the company now? Why do you need rackspace at all?

For hosting some of their web sites(jsp) and are slowly growing and I have to setup HA and LB cluster for apache-tomcat and mysql so as to have our sites highly available with zero down time.

ASKER

That may not be the answer for using Rackspace as I forgot to say the main point that I'm from India basically where power cut is common especially in our area and some times for longer ours though having inverters. And to avoid maintenance, hardware charges,.. our company is using cloud servers.

David Johnson, CD

a generator and ups's may be a more cost effective situation. In North America we take reliable electricity as a given.

ASKER

Yeah got it!. One thing I want to know if i'ts possible. That is, I share an public ip between LBs, doest it require another static public for each LB?. In Rackspace, by default a public & a private ip is assigned to servers I am thinking if it's possible to ommit public ip assigned for LBs? so that I can avoid 2 public ip cost on LBs and share a single public ip between LBs. And I can access the LBs or point site domain name to this shared ip.

ASKER

Hello anybody!

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David Johnson, CD

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can you show me a diagram of what you said in post 36520928?

I'm failing to understand what this post is about. If u r bit more specific I could tell.

My question was not the Single domain name pointing to multiple public ips, but with ip-failover between two machines(shared pubic ip between LBs) can we add multiple registered domain names(site name) to this shared ip?. And as by default, each machine is assigned a public ip, is it possible to avoid public ips(to cut ip cost) of LBs having only private ip and share public ip?.

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David Johnson, CD

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Thanks for the reply, let me go through once again as I've give a long gap, ofcourse I should implement this in the near future probably start of next year...

ASKER

Not exactly what I want