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Date:      Tue, 04 May 2004 12:42:08 -0300
From:      Alex Soares de Moura <alex@rnp.br>
To:        freebsd-isp@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: How to build huge services?
Message-ID:  <4097B9D0.3090606@rnp.br>
In-Reply-To: <20040504011814.GA49506@bsd3.cis.nctu.edu.tw>
References:  <20040504011814.GA49506@bsd3.cis.nctu.edu.tw>

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8623012 wrote:

>Hi!
>
>Recently, I'm interesting for thinking how to build huge services based on FreeBSD.
>
>Like some ISPs or portal site, the number of customers may be more then ten million.
>In the so big environment, how to plan their services?
>For example, 
>how to build mail system for more then ten million users?
>(smtp + pop3 + imap + webmail, and each user has 50MBytes disk quota)
>And how to build so monster size web hosting?
>
>
>In my opinions, 
>First, using dns and layer4 switch (ex: alteon) to balance the load.
>But, there are many problems still exist, like storage, authorization, etc.
>How to solve them?
>  
>
Look for solutions used in IDCs (Internet Data Centers), because this is
the
same problem they've been deploying to offer services to thousands of
clients
with the same big (huge, in some cases) infrastructure. You can find the
solutions in vendor websites, like Cisco, Juniper, HP, IBM, Dell etc.
Look for
solutions for high-availability, failover, load balancing, fault tolerance,
SAN, NAS etc. There also are protocols like VRRP and HSRP amongst other
technologies that can be used in these solutions.

For instance, maybe you will find that layer4 switches are not enough
and you
will need layer7 switches. Another possibility is that to support
millions of
clients, you may need to deploy clustering technology.

In fact, you'll have to choose and mix many different technologies to
accoplish
this kind of task. You've already started your checklist. Now, look for the
available options for each item. You will find there can be many (too
many?) to
some of them. One thought you will have to keep in mind all, though: the
KISS
philosophy.

Some pointers are (Google is your friend):

Building a High-performance Computing Cluster Using FreeBSD
http://people.freebsd.org/~brooks/papers/bsdcon2003/

FreeBSD Clustering on TechTV
http://vtbsd.net/ipw-web/portal/cms/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=7&ttitle=FreeBSD_Clustering_on_TechTV

ACME - The Advanced Computer Matrix for Engineering
http://acme.ecn.purdue.edu/

Which OS is Fastest -- FreeBSD Follow-Up
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1147/sam0108q/0108q.htm

Best regards,

Alex



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