What does load balancing do?

[Dabrowski]

I asked in the cluster02 thread, but no one seemed to notice. But I am wondering what exactly load balancing is for if it doesn't protect uptime?

Thanks.

[RTH10260]

I asked in the cluster02 thread, but no one seemed to notice. But I am wondering what exactly load balancing is for if it doesn't protect uptime?

Thanks.By concept a cluster consists of a 'front-end' server (router etc) that receives requests from the internet, and a row of webservers that process the requests. The cluster controller knows about the current load of each webserver, and can allocate new requests to the least used webserver at the time.

Each cluster has one IP number in the current configuration of PW. That one IP number is shared among some 15'000 websites. In the case of a DDOS (as happened with cluster02), the cluster controller becomes a bottle-neck and will itself bog down when too many requests reach it.

[PS. be aware that this is an approximation and not a technical acurate desription]

[Skunkboy]

Load Balancing Information (http://powweb.com/PowWeb/Technology/Overview)
Other PW network info (http://powweb.com/PowWeb/Technology/Network)

As far as DDOS, it's nothing that's done by just a single simple computer but rather many - thousands.

DDoS attacks shut down the eBay, CNN, and Yahoo! websites a few years back. A DDoS attack refers to a tidal wave of requests originating from thousands of co-opted "zombie" computers, usually without their owners knowledge or consent. The requests bombard the server under attack, overloading processors and jamming the site’s bandwidth connecting it with the outside world. Most times the "zombie" computer owners don't even know they're part of it as they are being controlled by trojans... all the more reason to run anti-virus software.