wraggster
November 5th, 2013, 13:09
http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/8-pi-cluster-3.jpg?w=580&h=435
Plenty of folks have used their Raspberry Pi as a web server. [Steve] however is the first 8 node load balanced pi cluster (http://raspberrywebserver.com/) server we’ve run into. While we have seen pi clusters before (http://hackaday.com/2013/05/21/33-node-beowulf-cluster-built-with-raspberry-pi/), they’ve never been pressed into service as a public facing web server. [Steve] has created a really nice informative website about the Raspberry Pi, and Linux in general. As his page views have increased, he’s had to add nodes to the server (http://raspberrywebserver.com/raspberrypicluster/adding-more-nodes-to-the-cluster.html). Currently [Steve] sees about 45,000 page views per month.
At first glance it would seem that the load balance system would be the weak link in the chain. However, [Steve] did realize that he needed more than an Pi to handle this task. He built the load balancer using an old PC with 512MB of RAM and a 2.7GHz x86 CPU. The most important thing about the balancer is dual network interfaces, one side facing the internet, the other facing the Pi cluster. The balancer isn’t a router though. Only HTTP requests are forwarded. The Pi nodes themselves live on their own sub net. Steve has run some basic testing with siege, however nothing beats a real world test. We figured a couple of links in from Hackaday would be enough to acid test the system.
http://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/can-an-8-node-raspberry-pi-cluster-web-server-survive-hackaday/
Plenty of folks have used their Raspberry Pi as a web server. [Steve] however is the first 8 node load balanced pi cluster (http://raspberrywebserver.com/) server we’ve run into. While we have seen pi clusters before (http://hackaday.com/2013/05/21/33-node-beowulf-cluster-built-with-raspberry-pi/), they’ve never been pressed into service as a public facing web server. [Steve] has created a really nice informative website about the Raspberry Pi, and Linux in general. As his page views have increased, he’s had to add nodes to the server (http://raspberrywebserver.com/raspberrypicluster/adding-more-nodes-to-the-cluster.html). Currently [Steve] sees about 45,000 page views per month.
At first glance it would seem that the load balance system would be the weak link in the chain. However, [Steve] did realize that he needed more than an Pi to handle this task. He built the load balancer using an old PC with 512MB of RAM and a 2.7GHz x86 CPU. The most important thing about the balancer is dual network interfaces, one side facing the internet, the other facing the Pi cluster. The balancer isn’t a router though. Only HTTP requests are forwarded. The Pi nodes themselves live on their own sub net. Steve has run some basic testing with siege, however nothing beats a real world test. We figured a couple of links in from Hackaday would be enough to acid test the system.
http://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/can-an-8-node-raspberry-pi-cluster-web-server-survive-hackaday/