Introduction

Web hosting for a large number of customers is a challenge with a number of trade-offs. Different sites has different requirements on performance and cost. WebMux is flexible to fit in different environments.

Case I

The customer's sites are mission critical. Server cluster with data replication is employed. We called each cluster a Farm.

In this case, the servers within the cluster act as web and FTP servers with the contents resides in the same server. The WebMux is balancing the load among the server. When customers updating their web site to one of the server, the cluster OS will replicate the changes to all the servers within the cluster. Although some cluster OS also provides the load balancing functions, using WebMux often simplifies the configuration, increases the reliability and enhance the performance.

Case II

Server clusters can be costly and complex. An alternative method is to employ a number of server as web or FTP server but redirecting the contents  to a single fault tolerant file server.

Performance is gained because normal web or FTP operations consists of handling the HTTP/FTP requests and fetching the actual pages or files. Handling the HTTP/FTP requests demands many times more on system resources than fetching or writing files.

The WebMux is used here to balancing the load and monitoring the web and FTP servers.

Case III

Not all web or FTP sites are necessary mission critical. For many applications, slower performance, even short period of down time may be acceptable. The problem is how to know a server is down within a timely manner without having the customers to call in with complaints. The WebMux can plays an important role here.

A WebMux can be setup to monitor hundreds of web or FTP servers with different contents on them. Although no load balancing or fault tolerant is provided, the WebMux can page the system administrator immediately when any server went down. Actions can be taken and the server back on-line before the customers notice the problem.