Load Balancing ManDrake Linux

[DrGreen26]

I am new to this, working with some folks to load balance some linux boxes. Latest and greatest build of ManDrake Linux.

What we would like to do is load balance the servers for public access at the same time lock them down to prevent un-authorized access etc.

Are there any documents out there (I am sure there are) that would give me detailed, step by step directions on how to achieve this.

There are a total of 3 servers that will need to be hardened and load balanced.

For those of you who may have interest as to what is being done. You can go to

http://www.vergotha.com

for a brief insight as to what we need to achieve and why.

Thanks in Advance


Mark C. Greenwood, CNE
m_jgreenwood@yahoo.com

CNE 4.11 and CNE 5 certified. BS Degree in MIS. Working in the industry for 8 years.

I work with NT servers, NDS for NT as well.

 

[Guest_imported]

Hi, Mark.
Glad to see a statistical pro on this forum.

Anyway: Yes, there are several ways to handle your
situation: the easiest would be DNS, and server
replication through rsync or some other app.
This is simple rotation and is a platform independent technique I'm sure you have used or seen used before.

Another way would be through linux's adv.routing and
iptables.
There is an adv.routing howto on the web in many
places and with many distros. sitting down with it
for the night may do you some good.


As far as hardening the servers:
This is really a matter of trusting someone
who knows iptables, a decent ids(snort)and a
selectively tuned reactive defense plugin for
snort(maybe).
Then a second line of defense, with xinetd or
tcpwrappers & PAM -> lastly integrity checking apps
and scripts and the latest patches and a distro that
makes it easy to patch up on the fly.(rpm based)

That's my .02 cents.
Good Luck

 

[DrGreen26]

Thanks for the info, that will give me a good start....




Mark

Mark C. Greenwood, CNE
m_jgreenwood@yahoo.com

CNE 4.11 and CNE 5 certified. BS Degree in MIS. Working in the industry for 8 years.

I work with NT servers, NDS for NT as well.

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

As jerkie says, you could use the tc code from the iproute2 rpm to provide different levels of service - packets can be marked with iptables or you can use other filters. See -->

http://lartc.org/HOWTO/cvs/2.4routing/output/2.4routing.html

The other one is the Linux Virtual Server project which does what you'd expect -->

http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/

Hope this helps