Proper redundancy question.

[fatboy]

Evening all.

I write software for Windows that, at the moment, means people have to download a new install package when I update something. I have been messing with a few things and there is a way I can get the software to connect to the server at startup and download anything new automatically (with user permission!).

Now, what I need is a true set up that means if one server is dead, they bounce to the next one to get the updated code.

In numpty terms of less than one syllable (thats the level I am at ) what would be the best way to go about this without forking out thousands of bucks?

Cheers  

 

[drmike]

What you need is CDN or a poor mans version.

You can accomplish this with 2-3 cheap VPS accounts + Rage 4 DNS + API tied in uptime monitoring.

A record in DNS = downloads.youdomain.com

A record #1 = US East

A record #2 = US West

A record #3 = US Central

Your downloads continue to live on downloads.yourdomain.com.  Rage4 has functionality for base failover as well as 3rd party monitoring that can strike down other instances from the available pool.

Cost: Rage4 = free 250k lookups a month and perhaps free if you get a VPS from a partner that bundles it.  Each VPS is lowly resources.  Looking at < $20 a month.

 

[fatboy]

Cheers drmike, off to see what this rage4 is

Gives me something to mess with over the next week or so....

 

[drmike]

Rage4 = Anycast DNS provider.... Meaning it's massively scaled, available at POPs all over the place.   They host your DNS records and bundle other useful features.

 

[texteditor]

also if you have an account with prometeus business, you get rage4 for free - I guess it's unlimited?

 

[drmike]

also if you have an account with prometeus business, you get rage4 for free - I guess it's unlimited?

Prometeus offers free Rage4 with their Biz VPS accounts and with iwStack.

Unsure about the number of domains they include.

Look ups should be "unlimited" as other bulk accounts are like that.  Believe there is a fair use policy though.  So if you generated 2 billion lookups in a month might run into some slack

 

[drmike]

I don't think Uncle Sal will mind, this is from a PM recently:

At present we are offering free rage4 access (mean you get your own rage4 account) to iwStack and Biz clients. The service can be also bought for €12/year but I suggest to buy an iwStack account (credit never expire) :-D

There is no limit in how many domains can be created and each domain get unlimited queries.


Of course the fact that there is no domain quota doesn't mean that it can be abused, it's intended for fair usage

 

[drmike]

We do have other vpsBoard members bundling Rage4 with their offers.   The others that come to mind are Fliphost and KnightSwarm.

Nice trio of offering companies geographically

 

[fatboy]

Thanks to you both for more info, appreciated.

Drmike, thanks for the PM - great info.

Looks like I will be buying a few more boxes this week!!

 

[concerto49]

Yeah fliphost has it

 

[BuyCPanel-Kevin]

Or you could also just have a text file filled with the IP's of all of your servers and you application parses through that list on start up and checks for updates on each of the servers until one of them works. Kind of like repo's

 

[astutiumRob]

In numpty terms of less than one syllable (thats the level I am at ) what would be the best way to go about this without forking out thousands of bucks?

Do abbreviations count as less than 1 syllable ?CDN

 

[earl]

Do abbreviations count as less than 1 syllable ?


CDN

I would think CDN would be 3 syllables