What load balancing method do you use?

[idzone]

To people having more than one server.
What method are you using for load-balancing your site?

DNS based or Hardware based LB or any other method?

If you could also post the no of servers you are using for your site, along with your method of load balancing.

Also, is anyone using colocation for 100% uptime? If yes, how do you use LB here?

[ZoNiak]

I only host my images somewhere else and the load goes half

[ZoNiak]

I also use dedicated server for one main mysql database which is used
at all time from the websites!

[Humbug]

Are there any reasonably cheap hosting companies who offer load balancing solutions?

[Greg-J]

www.mediatemple.com is load balanced by nature.


Here's a company that offers load balancing as well: http://www.servepath.com/server-network/index.htm

[WiredTree Zac]

Are you looking to load balance the servers because your site has outgrown a single server or more for redundancy?

If your site has outgrown a single server, and you use MySQL, you may want to think about moving MySQL onto its own server before you move to load balancing. You could also separate static content (like images) onto their own servers as well if that would help lessen the load. Once your needs move beyond that, or if you are doing it more for redundancy, you will definitely want to look into a hardware-based load balancing solution whether it is an appliance or software running on another server. DNS based load balancing just doesn't compare to other methods in terms of flexibility, granular control, or reliability.

If you were co-locating, your best bet would be to get a load balancing appliance. If you are very concerned with high availability you would need to get two and set them up in failover so that if one load balancer went down, the other would take over. Otherwise, you still have a single point of failure.

[pimpmaspace]

HTTPD 1
Internet ---> DNS (BIND) < > MYSQL
| HTTPD 2
MAIL

Thats one of the better setups thats still easy to manage and is still scalable. You can do very good load balancing with BIND (DNS). Hardware load balancing is a lot more complicated and often requires good knowledge of the hardware being used to do the balancing.

[fntastik]

Hey greg-j has MSLS been tried out on www.mediatemple.com network?
Been thinking about giving them a try.
Thanks,

[defIed]

if mysql is causing the high load, consider caching some sql queries with memcached.
it really helps bringing down the load on a heavy mysql server