Load Balancer Question

need help finding one

[zuko105]

Can anyone recommend a good load balancer (FREE) that can run on a windows platform.

I'm struggling with a java based one right now that does not really have good documentation. I can get the daemon to run but not communicate with my webservers.

Thanks in advance.

Zuko

[digitalv]

There is no such thing as a good software load balancer for Windows - and if there was, it certainly wouldn't be free.

The solution is hardware - much more reliable, and you don't have to worry about another machine that could easily be hacked and have all of your traffic redirected somewhere else :)

I recommend doing this sort of thing at the switch, if you have a switch that supports it. Otherwise, check out F5's BigIP series.

I'm curious though - if you have a website large enough to require a load balancer, you shouldn't be worried about the COST of one.

[zuko105]

Actually, I'm kinda working around the inefficiencies of my webserver. The webserver instances them selves are actually on the same machine, I just need a daemon to reside there to distribute traffic to each instance.

I can keep replicating the instances all day, just need the piece to sit on top of them.

True, the sites are pulling some nice coin along with all that traffic, which is why I dropped 40k on some sweet rackmount air conditioned flex capacitor setup. (Doc Brown--back to the future 1986)

Anyone know of some freeware or open source code for something like this?

Zuko

[Storyteller]

You may want to bring in an experienced consultant. Sometimes it's possible to bring the load down several times by proper tuning and a little programming. For a free load balancer, check out [backhand.org....] Although I'm not sure you'll be able to get it working on Windows.

[edited by: DaveAtIFG at 9:59 pm (utc) on April 3, 2004]
[edit reason] Linked URL [/edit]