load balancing question

[Javid Abdul-AJAVID1]

I didnt start this thread, i was just suggesting LSF as good load balancing
techqnique for samba

But you have raised valid questions for the person who started this.
thanks'

-----Original Message-----
From: John E. Malmberg [mailto:wb8tyw at qsl.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 10:23 PM
To: samba-technical at lists.samba.org
Subject: Re: load balancing question


Javid Abdul-AJAVID1 wrote:

> Why dont we chose a mechanism to connect to the host itself
> like static dns rounrobin ,each connection will round robin'ed'
> or some dynamic round robin utilies

Well, you are the only one that really knows the requirements of your 
application.

You seem to be asking more questions each time, with out giving us any 
more detail on what you really need to be done.

So far though you have not offered any insights to us on the data 
patterns of the clients to determine if the load can be distributed.

With out that information from you, it is not possible to make any 
recomendations.

Are all of the files in the same directory?

Your first post implied that they were, but most of the solutions that 
you seem to want to look at are not compatable with that assumption.

Are the clients all accessing the same files?

Same as above.

Are the clients modifying the files?  And then referencing the modified 
files?

How often is the server updating the files?


You have not indicated the platform for the servers, or anything that 
really allows any estimation about how much data is being moved.

We do not know how fault tolerant the application needs to be, or how 
much downtime costs.

We also do not know what you are wanting to use as a host for the SAMBA 
server.  Some hosts and filesystems allow you to transparently 
distribute the load under all conditions.

Other hosts and file systems will only allow you to distribute the load 
if your application meets certain requirements.

We must assume that the clients must be running Microsoft Windows, as if 
they were running a different operating system, there are other file 
sharing systems that could be used.

All of these factors are important to know, and maybe a few others.

And unless we have the answers to those questions, there is no way that 
any of us can know if the advise we are giving is applicable.

We do not even know if your application would even tax a single host 
running SAMBA, or if SAMBA is even a good fit for what you need to do.



-John
wb8tyw at qsl.network
Personal Opinion Only