mod rewrite peformance questions

[DataRob]

I am launching multiple sites and would like them to be on the same server but appear to be on random servers. I am thinking I can accomplish this by using mod proxy but I am not very familiar with it. Will I run into any issues with mod proxy as my sites grow in traffic? What other issues might I run into other than the time it takes to transfer the data between servers? Thanks

[g1smd]

There's a lot of performance issues because the servers have to do everything at least twice.

Why go to all that trouble and then have to maintain a complex system that could easily break?

[DataRob]

Few points...

1) We are launching many sites and do not want to get penalized by Google. My SEO team is pushing for one server per site and to have server at multiple hosts. This is a requirement that I have to follow regardless if I agree with it or not.

2) We have a large database that powers the sites that I do not want to replicate on many servers/hosts.

3) When I have to update one site I would rather do it once and not have to worry about all of the other servers.

4) It will be easier to manage one environment that houses code and data. The "satellite" servers that are just using mod_proxy will be easy to spin up or replace if something happens.

I understand doing everything twice and how it will impact page load time. I will need to do some testing to see how much it impacts page load time. My concern is what happens to mod proxy under load? Any known issues? Thanks

[g1smd]

Well, you could service two to four times as many concurrent users without the proxy in place as you can with it.

We are launching many sites and do not want to get penalized by Google.

Oh. It sounds like you're running some sort of scheme to try to fool searchengines.
Users will see slower page load times and there's plenty of things that can go wrong.
You're not building this set of sites with your users in mind are you? Good luck with that.