off topic=mirror sites?

[Guest]

Hi,

 

Can someone direct me or show me how to setup a mirror site?

 

One of my customers will need this.

 

Thanks!

[mattice]

What's your definition of a 'mirror' site?

Do you mean an exact copy on a different server used to balance loads or do you mean a 'identical, live updated backup'?

[Guest]

He needs another server site in case my server that he is hosting on goes down.

 

This site links to the FBI so that is why it is important for it to NEVER go down if possible.

[mattice]

FBI as in one of the most targeted networks to compromise?

Wow, I'm glad I'm not in your shoes :)

 

There are more approaches to do that.

Several programs replicate the db / site contents. Which is good but

never enough if security is a REAL issue. Just look at replicating / mirroring on any Linux site and you'll see a bunch.

 

However, in my experience the only good way is

to have a second identical harddrive that's not connected to the net at all.

It will have the complete OS of your server copied on it. Everything.

 

Once a day / hour whatever you plug in your backup harddisk to a system connected to the internet, download your mirrored backups on it, take it out again and put it 'on the shelve' again.

 

That way if your system gets compromised / you have a disk failure you just swap disks and are back online.

 

I know it is a hassle but it is the safest way.

You'll need to buy two identical harddrives and swap-able bays

(unless you really like unscrewing computers all the time :) )

 

HTH,

Mattice

[Guest]

Mattice,

 

Are you saying to get another computer with all the stuff that is on my dedicated server?

 

I don't think that will be feasible since my dedicated server is co-located in colorado and I'm in arkansas.

 

What's the second suggestion? :cry:

[Ian]

I assume that what you want is that if www.mydomain.com goes down, another server called www.mydomain.com takes over.

 

This is really something your host should do. First, do you have a service level agreement, if you do, does it give a figure for guaranteed uptime. If this figure doesn't suit you, speak to your host.

 

If you mean something different, please explain

[mattice]

No, Im saying get a seperate HARDDISK.

If all fails you will then have a ready to go harddisk.

You'll still need to drive to Colorado though.

 

Making backups on the same system is useless in case of

 

1) a harddisk failure

2) a compromised (hacked) computer

 

Mirroring on another server helps but isn't perfect.

 

If you mirror your www.a.com site on a www.b.com server somewhere else and www.a.com gets hacked you can bet www.b.com will get rooted too. In that case you also loose your www.b.com mirror.

 

I'm not saying you shouldn't mirror, I'm just explaining if you are serious on keeping downtime as low as possible this is the way to go without investing too much money in hardware solutions.

 

As for mirroring... (assuming Linux here) you can do it as simple as having a cron job do a complete backup.tar, ftp-ing it to the other server where their cronjob unpacks it again, to replicating / mirroring automatically by software.

 

Here is a start: http://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_sea...+%20replication

[Guest]

Ian,

 

I am the host server and yes, what I want is that if www.mydomain.com goes down on my server then we want to be able to redirect people to another server with www.mydomain.com on it.

 

We can't just put a link on the site as my client has suggested because if his site goes down there goes the link.

[Malawi]

Ian,

I am the host server and yes, what I want is that if www.mydomain.com goes down on my server then we want to be able to redirect people to another server with www.mydomain.com on it.

We can't just put a link on the site as my client has suggested because if his site goes down there goes the link.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I belive this is something you will have to set up at the DNS-server.

Where you set your server as primary host, and another one as seconday(mirror)

 

Then you should use either a program for mirroring, witch will update the other server when changes occurs at the main server. Or do a compare or full backup to the mirror every x hours/minutes.

 

Beware that if the site should be hacked, the changes will be refledted on the mirror-site aswell with a realtime setup.

 

Unfortunately I do not know how to actualy do theese setups, and if you neither knows it, you may want to turn away that customer. (Better that than to risk an angry customer later on.:-))

[thetraveller]

Ian,

I am the host server and yes, what I want is that if www.mydomain.com goes down on my server then we want to be able to redirect people to another server with www.mydomain.com on it.

We can't just put a link on the site as my client has suggested because if his site goes down there goes the link.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

For the database side of the site turn on replication in MySQL.

 

We use it to have copies of one database on 6 different and distinct servers and the changes in the master are reflected in the slave basically instantly.

 

John