[A2/Load balancing] mod_proxy vs. dedicated box?

[Gilles Ganault-3]

Hello

I'd like some feedback about using Apache's mod_proxy to provide load
balancing with other Apache2 servers vs. using a dedicated device.

At this point, our first Apache2 server, acting as load balancer, is
50% idle, while the other Apache2 server is 0% idle:

--- Apache #1 (includes load balancer to forward connections to Apache
#2)
top - 19:35:21 up 26 days,  2:21,  3 users,  load average: 165.76,
163.97, 200.46
Tasks: 829 total, 155 running, 673 sleeping,   1 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 36.3%us, 10.2%sy,  0.0%ni, 47.2%id,  5.1%wa,  0.1%hi,  1.0%si,
0.0%st
Mem:   2070172k total,  1978392k used,    91780k free,    48016k
buffers
Swap:   998376k total,   244336k used,   754040k free,   518996k
cached

--- Apache #2
top - 19:33:46 up 21 days,  3:23,  3 users,  load average: 511.90,
468.51, 351.50
Tasks: 1325 total, 105 running, 1219 sleeping,   1 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 28.5%us, 65.1%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  1.1%hi,  5.4%si,
0.0%st
Mem:   2061660k total,  2012144k used,    49516k free,     2084k
buffers
Swap:   922600k total,   430876k used,   491724k free,   104796k
cached

Any idea to explain this imbalance? Should we get better performance
with a dedicated box?

Thank you.


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[Ben Spencer]

Dedicated device = ??

What type of applications are running on server 1 & server 2? Sticky
sessions being used? Explain a little more of your configuration.

You should also be able to get a feeling for the distribution of the
requests by using balancer-manager

benji

Benji Spencer
System Administrator

Moody Bible Institute
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: news [mailto:news@...] On Behalf Of Gilles Ganault
> Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 4:53 PM
> To: users@...
> Subject: [users@httpd] [A2/Load balancing] mod_proxy vs. dedicated box?
>
> Hello
>
> I'd like some feedback about using Apache's mod_proxy to provide load
> balancing with other Apache2 servers vs. using a dedicated device.
>
> At this point, our first Apache2 server, acting as load balancer, is
> 50% idle, while the other Apache2 server is 0% idle:
>
> --- Apache #1 (includes load balancer to forward connections to Apache
> #2)
> top - 19:35:21 up 26 days,  2:21,  3 users,  load average: 165.76,
> 163.97, 200.46
> Tasks: 829 total, 155 running, 673 sleeping,   1 stopped,   0 zombie
> Cpu(s): 36.3%us, 10.2%sy,  0.0%ni, 47.2%id,  5.1%wa,  0.1%hi,  1.0%si,
> 0.0%st
> Mem:   2070172k total,  1978392k used,    91780k free,    48016k
> buffers
> Swap:   998376k total,   244336k used,   754040k free,   518996k
> cached
>
> --- Apache #2
> top - 19:33:46 up 21 days,  3:23,  3 users,  load average: 511.90,
> 468.51, 351.50
> Tasks: 1325 total, 105 running, 1219 sleeping,   1 stopped,   0 zombie
> Cpu(s): 28.5%us, 65.1%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  1.1%hi,  5.4%si,
> 0.0%st
> Mem:   2061660k total,  2012144k used,    49516k free,     2084k
> buffers
> Swap:   922600k total,   430876k used,   491724k free,   104796k
> cached
>
> Any idea to explain this imbalance? Should we get better performance
> with a dedicated box?
>
> Thank you.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> The official User-To-User support forum of the Apache HTTP Server
> Project.
> See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/userslist.html> for more info.
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[Gilles Ganault-3]

On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:32:16 -0500, Ben Spencer
<ben.spencer@...> wrote:
>Dedicated device = ??

I was thinking of something like Packeteer, ie. not a regular PC
running *nix + Apache.

>What type of applications are running on server 1 & server 2? Sticky
>sessions being used?

At this point, we have one Apache acting both as web server, and load
balancer to two other Apache servers, a NAS to host static files (JPG,
etc.) and a MySQL server.

I was wondering if Apache's modules that handle load balancing offer
performance on par with dedicated load balancers.

Thank you.


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