Message-ID: <008701bf7240$f4613d30$064b2509@raleigh.ibm.com>
From: "Bill Stoddard" <stoddard@raleigh.ibm.com>
To: <new-httpd@apache.org>
References: <38A00E75.1FEE4CD4@Golux.Com>
 <38A02501.AA729014@relativity.yi.org>
Subject: Re: 'Apache on {Beowolf,clusters}'
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 09:29:49 -0500
Organization: IBM Corp.
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> Rodent of Unusual Size wrote:
> >
> > I'm getting more and more requests about whether/how Apache
> > will run on clusters.  It's becoming a FAQ.  Does anyone have
> > any documentation on using Apache in such configurations, or
> > on performance?  Dean? :-)
>
> Why would anyone want to do this?  Why not put a ton of Apache boxes
> behind a LocalDirector or any other of the billions of load balancers.
>
I had the same question.  I don't know anything about Beowolf clustering,
but if you could establish a fast comm link (at bus speeds for example)
between the CPUs in the cluster, seems you could build some really scalable
web server farms (with appropriate modifications to Apache to exploit the
cluster).  Has anyone ever considered putting a CPU and some RAM on a PCI
card, installing Linux and Apache? Seems you could scale this quite nicely.
The PCI card Apache (with a kernel level cache?) could serve the static
content and off-load dynamic content to a back-end server. Or visa-versa.
The combinations are limitless. I'm suprised no one has turned this into a
business :-)

Bill