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Sir,
I am new to this field of load balancing and would require some help. We
have a PHP + MySQL based online exam software which conducts simple online
exams (in the form of Multiple Choice Answers). The software uses MySQL
backend and Apache web server. We had a mock test and realised that the
minute the number of students logging in increased to beyond 30, the
computer became slow and finally couldn't withstand it. Beyond 30 students
sitting at once the PHP pages failed to load and students couldn't log in.
Luckily this was the mock exam!!
The solution as we got from our Computer Science faculty is "load
balancing". We are willing to setup multiple servers hosting Apache and let
students log in. The current solution we thought of was that make batches of
30 students and make them connect to one server, etc. But then we are
dealing with 500 students. And it is not liable to do something like this.
We also heard about DNS Load Balancing. Will this help?* The issue* is we
don't want a student's test answers to be stored in various computers. It
should be that once a student connects to one server, he should be on that
server itself. (We don't mind replicating all the databases of
Questions/Answers as well as students' info on all the server computers)
If DNS load balancing is not the solution, then is LVS the right answer? If
yes, which LVS (we went through the site to find various versions of LVS
(LVS- NAT or LVS-TUN or LVS-DR?).
We have Red Hat Linux 9 installed on the computers. Will LVS work with them?
Thanking you in advance,
Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year,
Roshan
PS : I am a student in my 3rd year and have taken up an elective (in
college) of implementing "New Load Balancing Algorithms". Could anyone
please mention a framework/API on which I could implement these new "load
balancing" algorithms written by my Sir? Am well conversant with C/C++/Perl.
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