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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    33

    A tip: always have two servers at two different locations

    I always have two servers at two different locations. One server is active, the other server acts like a mirror, set-up exactly the same way as the main server. Right now I have one in Munich and one in Texas.

    If server one goes down, I direct my DNS to the back-up server. This can take up to one day, maybe it's possible to do it quicker working with DNS zones or whatever but I don't know anything about it. But one day downtime is better than 2 days or longer.

    I move files from server 1 to server 2 by first tarring on server 1 and then use wget in Putty from server 2. It should be possible to automate this but this is another thing I don't know much about.

    Anyway... having two servers like this is cheaper than having one server with 24/7 server plan. Another advantage is that you can always move to another provider without any risk of downtime.

    Just a tip. Also, I am new on this forum and I am shocked to see how many problems there are with so many hosting providers. It seems that the internet is today's Wild West, there's bullets flying around everywhere!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    116
    Quote Originally Posted by RieniO View Post
    I always have two servers at two different locations. One server is active, the other server acts like a mirror, set-up exactly the same way as the main server. Right now I have one in Munich and one in Texas.

    If server one goes down, I direct my DNS to the back-up server. This can take up to one day, maybe it's possible to do it quicker working with DNS zones or whatever but I don't know anything about it. But one day downtime is better than 2 days or longer.

    I move files from server 1 to server 2 by first tarring on server 1 and then use wget in Putty from server 2. It should be possible to automate this but this is another thing I don't know much about.

    Anyway... having two servers like this is cheaper than having one server with 24/7 server plan. Another advantage is that you can always move to another provider without any risk of downtime.

    Just a tip. Also, I am new on this forum and I am shocked to see how many problems there are with so many hosting providers. It seems that the internet is today's Wild West, there's bullets flying around everywhere!
    1. Well you could set a low TTL which wouldn't take as long to switch?
    2. Maybe you could have the backup server take over the master server's ip when it goes down. -- not all host will let you do this though, unless your host owns both data centers then maybe u could use the IP in both of them.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    3,531
    Set a lower TTL or even use round robin DNS servers so both are in use all the time.
    BotWars.io - Code the AI of your Battle Bot!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    116
    Quote Originally Posted by ZanyHost View Post
    Set a lower TTL or even use round robin DNS servers so both are in use all the time.
    yeah, round robin would prob be better anyway, so the second one isn't wasted sitting there at idle, lol

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    2,222
    Quote Originally Posted by ZanyHost View Post
    ... or even use round robin DNS servers so both are in use all the time.
    That requires the apps on the servers to be designed so they work that way.

  6. #6
    If this is *nix servers why not setup rsync and set it up on a cronjob?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Zurich - Switzerland
    Posts
    28
    Maybe you can find a provider using IGP anycast for disaster recovery and load distribution across different DC.
    Last edited by EngineNetworks; 11-18-2009 at 12:22 PM. Reason: misstyping

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    87
    That is an interesting method you're using. I'm glad it has proven successful for you! Have you had any confusion with having two separate servers? Has the cost of having two been worth not having to deal with problems with downtime? I'm just curious
    Whitney Godard - Account Manager
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  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Kingston, Ontario
    Posts
    1,588
    Good luck rsyncing databases, that can often lead to issues. If your site is static it's no biggie but if you have a large application then it gets ugly.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Houston, Texas, USA
    Posts
    3,262
    I can't agree more with OP. No single facility has ever achieved 100% uptime. So it's best to have a sound strategy in place. However, manual failover is definitely not the best route I would take. There are failover offerings on this forum that might benefit you. It will probably save you a good deal on that second dedi.

    Regards
    Joe
    UNIXy - Fully Managed Servers and Clusters - Established in 2006
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