Administering an ISP Installation

Building a Web Cluster

Windows 2000 Advanced Server offers customers highly scalable services. If you are an ISP, you are naturally concerned with meeting clients’ needs. The best way to guarantee the availability and reliability of your services is by setting up your installation in Web clusters (also called Web farms). Once again, a Web cluster is any Web site served by more than one computer.

When building a Web cluster, you should choose three-tier Web architecture (consisting of Web server programs, COM+ applications, and database applications). The advantage of three-tier architecture is that you can separate the following layers onto different servers, rather than combine them all on one server:

Publishing content
Running applications
Accessing databases

With several inexpensive computers, you can more easily handle large volumes of client requests, without creating any unwanted delays. Sharing the load among more than one computer is especially vital for an ISP that supports critical applications: for instance, those that conduct financial transactions, access databases, support corporate intranets, and perform other key functions on a daily basis.

There are two important terms associated with Web clusters: clustering and load balancing. The next two sections briefly review what these terms mean in the context of Web clusters.

See the following: