Scalable content-aware request distribution in cluster-based networks servers

  • Authors:

  • Mohit Aron;Darren Sanders;Peter Druschel;Willy Zwaenepoel

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX;Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX;Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX;Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX

  • Venue:
  • ATEC '00 Proceedings of the annual conference on USENIX Annual Technical Conference
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

We present a scalable architecture for content-aware request distribution in web server clusters. In this architecture, a level-4 switch acts as the point of contact for the server on the Inernet and distributes the incoming requests to a number of back-end nodes. The switch does not perform any contect-based distribution. This function is performed by each of the back-end nodes, which may forward the incoming request to another back-end based on the requested contect. In terms of scalability, this architecture compares favorably to existing approaches where a front-end node performs contect-based distribution. In our architecture, the expensive operations of TCP connection estabilishment and handoff are distributes among the back-ends, rather than being centralized in the front-end node. Only a minimal additional latency penatly is paid for much improved scalability. We have implemented this new architecture, and we demonstrate its superior scalability by comparing it to a system that performs contect-aware distribution in the front-end, both under synthetic and trace-drive workloads.