[hobbit] Loadbalancing Hobbit Server

[Henrik Stoerner]

On Mon, Feb 19, 2007 at 11:36:08PM -0500, Scott Walters wrote:
> 
> Because of the complexity of HA solutions and data integrity, I am not sure
> the hobbit code is the right place for the logic.  Similar to the database
> backend, you'll open yourself up to a lot of potential debugging.  I am a
> keep it simple stupid kinda guy and I am reminded of a saying, "A man with
> one watch always knows what time it is."
> 
> I'd rather see the hobbit tool improve monitoring, reports, and other
> features that really matter.  Let the HA happen outside of hobbit.

I do try to keep it as simple as possible. The loadbalancing stuff had
almost no impact on the existing code, and if at all possible I'll
isolate this in a separate module so a "normal" single-site setup won't
have to deal with it.

But I do sympathize with your point. You could build a HA Hobbit setup
today using standard tools - shared storage and standard failover
software like the Linux-HA tools - and perhaps that is the best way for
this.

> I also believe you should only cluster/load-balance when one box can't do
> the job.  

That is the problem I was facing recently, so there was no way to avoid
that.

> Introducing those complexities to increase availability are
> usually counterproductive -- you end up taking your system down because it's
> so hard to configure/maintain.  And then it usually doesn't work anyway when
> it's supposed to.

*grin* yes, this was clearly demonstrated in an incident we had last week at 
work.


Regards,
Henrik