the best option for web hosting redundancy

[starnetwork]

i have hosting company and i work with directadmin as panel in Linux servers (CentOS 5.3 x64)
and Plesk as panel for Windows Servers (2008 web server x64)
now i don't have any redundancy for server fail
i just buy new "monster server" just for redundancy
i want to work with VPS on this server and create virtual server per Existing server
Gradually transfer the existing servers to the virtual server configuration to implement the possibility of redundancy

I'm deliberate whether to use
VMware ESXi or Proxmox VE (if you have More choices, I'd love to hear them)

final result at the end of the process, in the case of server fall / Overload,
the other server continues to work as usual
and the customer does not feel any problem (Transfer of information between the servers should be bi-directional)

Best Regards,
Star Network.

 

[handsonhosting]

Biggest issue that you will have is keeping the database in sync. You can setup a roundrobin call so that some users get sent to location A and some sent to location B, but keeping the database updated between the two will be difficult.

Many people would setup 3 machines - 1 for the database, and 2 for static sites that pull the data from the database machine.

What is your reason from going from the existing server to a VPS?

 

[starnetwork]

Word as VM

Hi,
Thanks for your answer.

i don't want dedicated server for WEB / DB / Mail / DNS / Etc...

i want to work as VM in my exists servers just for Cluster configuration
Please see: http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Cluster_configuration_(Video)

my main idea is to create better hosting services As close as possible to 100% uptime
http://tariffs.qwest.com:8000/idc/help/implementation/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=planning_and_implementation&file=03_basic_considerations13.htm

there is more benefits to redundancy except uptime
1. better data protection, additional source to data
2. A better option to deal with high load

 

[handsonhosting]

The problem with MySQL Databases however is that clustering doesn't work very well, and actually results in slower page loading times as a result.

I've not used Proxmox before and a search on google hasn't revealed any control panels working with it, but if it works for you, good on ya!

Having redundant servers is pretty much what I had talked about before (two web servers, and one database). You can do the same with a VPS if you wanted to, or even using Dynamic DNS through your DNS provider having some traffic go to one place, and some to another.

Clustering in this manner is nice however again, you will pay the price when it comes to speed and even possibilities of corrupted data.

True clustering should be handled through a Clustered machine with Load Balancing, but that's a topic for another thread.

What is the purpose of your website or the sites you will be hosting? If they're database driven sites, you will want to do some serious testing with the I/O on the machines!

 

[Hivelocity]

As previously stated, a big issue that always comes up is I/O. If you can afford SAS that is definately the route you wan to go. Do some testing before you put anything into production

 

[lev400]

VMware cluster with VMware ESX servers connected to a SAN and runing all servers as VM's is the best redundancy you can have. If a server dies the VM keeps on runing and the processing moves to another server on the SAN. This is the setup I use, it means all our servers have built in redundancy so we have to worry less about backing up data.

VMware is the best option. You cant get better redundancy.

 

[handsonhosting]

How does VMware handle servers in remote data centers (or does it)? The common point of failure would be a single datacenter solution in which it goes offline, or a power interruption etc. Having your machines in multiple facilities using a roundrobin DNS would resolve that - but I'm curious if VMware will support such an instance or if you still have to use outside DNS to do the routing?

 

[lev400]

Well a DNS box is so small if you want redundant DNS then have a second nameserver is another location and sync the records.

VMware can auto cluster servers (with any OS) but its really designed for local servers not beteween remote sites as it uses a lot of bandwidth.

I think for any small company the datacenter going down is not a problem you should be worrying about.. just colo in a good dc..