How to set up multiple web and database servers?

Question

My websites have been growing in terms of traffic and the load on the mysql has been increasing. I wanted a solution that would help deal with the increased load on mysql (all queries already optimized) because of the increase in traffic + backup servers that could serve as a failover if my main server fails.

I have read about setting up multiple web and database servers, but had a few questions:

1) How do you set up multiple web servers while maintaining the same content (would I have to upload the files to all the servers everytime they were updated or is there another way?)

2) Similarly, if I had to scale out the DB into more than one server, is there any other way apart from replication or is mysql replication the best way to go about it.

3) I have read that separating the database from the web server is a good idea, why is that? If I had 2 servers, can't I have both the DB and the files on both servers.

4) Is something known as a load balancer needed and would it help balance mysql queries as well if replication were set up?

Just very confused, would like some help.

Solution 1

The traditional setup would be to separate your web/application server and your DB server. Having them on the same box is going to be pretty restrictive. If your web application consists of a mix of static and dynamic content then further separation (a separate web server, application server and content server) will improve performance.

As far as MySQL goes, you might want to try these;

• Definitely have MySQL on its own dedicated server.
• Put in as much memory as you can afford and the machine can take, MySQL loves memory.
• Put your OS, bin logs and data on three seperate physical disks.

Solution 2

1) How do you set up multiple web servers while maintaining the same content (would I have to upload the files to all the servers everytime they were updated or is there another way?)

Situations get more complicated with scale. Starting out, you would simply deploy all content to all servers at the same time manually. You could write a script to do this.

As you can larger, configuration management software can help. Also, OpenEFS would be a suitable solution.

With static content and certain types of content, there are more options available. These decisions because more glaring when you attempt to modify or upload content via the load balanced application itself, as if you do not handle this well, you will result in data partition. For example, an uploaded file will only be on one of the load balanced servers.

In no particular order:

• Use a content delivery network.
• Proxy your static content with caching yourself.
• Abstract the data storage to a highly available filesystem.
• Often, ideally, the preferred solution is to store the content in a database.

2) Similarly, if I had to scale out the DB into more than one server, is there any other way apart from replication or is mysql replication the best way to go about it.

It depends on your end goal: consistency, availability, or partition tolerance. Compromises will likely be necessary. This is an expansive subject, where you would benefit from reading a book such as High Performance MySQL. Common options:

• Dual master replication using a technology like Linux-HA, VRRP, or multi master MySQL. This would have a floating IP. You would need to implement auto-id offset and be aware of application performance.
• Using a solution like DRBD for block level storage replication and then again using a technology like Linux-HA to failover the resources in case of failure.

MySQL also has various white papers published.

3) I have read that separating the database from the web server is a good idea, why is that? If I had 2 servers, can't I have both the DB and the files on both servers.

It is better to dedicate role to purpose, as it reduces complexity and security risk. You would likely benefit from a minimum of two load balancers, two database servers, and two Web servers. Be aware of additional points of failure, as high availability will not stop there. Your network will likely be the next obvious single point of failure.

It also enables standard builds, scaling, and transferring roles with less complication. Nevertheless, these features are not unique to separating server roles.

4) Is something known as a load balancer needed and would it help balance mysql queries as well if replication were set up?

For write queries and MySQL, it's often easier to scale up vertically. To scale out horizontally, which would be preferred with many modern solutions, you need to employ an architecture such as sharding. Ideally, your application would have to be designed to support that. There are also various middleware solutions that I am generally wary of.

You could load balance easily to MySQL replication slave servers, which would allow you to use a load balanced VIP for readonly queries.

Comments

[Sam]

how do you separate a web server from an application server? My site's built using PHP and there is PHP on every page, so how would it work? Excuse my ignorance.

[danlefree]

+1 Using a load balancer would require ... loading up another box with all the same bottlenecks and resource contention as the present setup

[Qwerky]

Afraid PHP is definitely not my area of expertise so excuse my ignorance. What do you use for your web server, IIS?

[wolfgangsz]

Install MySQL on separate server. Copy all databases across. Make sure your user accounts can access the databases from the web server (firewall, MySQL IP binding, and permission setup in MySQL). Then reconfigure the connection parameters on each site to connect to the DB server instead of localhost.

[symcbean]

-1: splitting the tiers on to seperate machines results in a less resilient architecture.

[Qwerky]

@symcbean splitting tiers on to seperate machines is de rigueur for any serious high load web app.

[Sumeet Kashyap]

Agree here: moving the web server to a different box from the DB server is the first place to start. Buy a nice big DB server while you're doing this. That will buy you some room for growth.

[Sumeet Kashyap]

I'd also argue that having both web server and DB on the same box has a resilience problem: all of your eggs are in one basket.

[Warner]

@symcbean what is the basis of your assertion? Separating server roles is standard practice is well-run IT environments.

[symcbean]

1 webserver + 1 database server creates 2 single points of failure vs 2x(webserver+database server). Do the sums. Admittedly with lots of boxes you can have Nxwebserver + Rxloadbalancer + Mxdatabase server - thats a much more complicated architecture.