In the previous article, we have written the basics of Cloud Load Balancer. Today, Page Speed is an important metrics for Search Engine Ranking.
Definitely, in order to speed up the page loading time, we must try two approaches – one is to use http based cache like using any WordPress plugin such as WP Super Cache with or without single or multiple CDN support. Second approach is to cache the database, again with some WordPress plugin.
However, we can not control the response time in the above mentioned approaches. More the unique hits, more the visitor’s stay, more the average pageviews / visitor, there will be increased burden on the server side. The usual pathway for a request to access a website (rather a domain name) remains dependent on lengthy and round about ways. Basically, we do not have much control on these factors. But, to reduce the burden on a single server, we can use Cloud Load Balancer technology. Cloud Load Balancer distributes workloads across two or more servers, network links, and other resources to maximize throughput, minimize response time and avoid overload.
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How to configure Cloud Load Balancer
Cloud Load Balancer service is provided by few brands, in this article we will show how to configure Cloud Load Balancer for The Rackspace Cloud. Any external server can be configured with Cloud Load Balancer. Basically as we have discussed, Cloud Load Balancer will distribute this work load of few hundreds to thousands per second across multiple servers.
Cost of Cloud Load Balancer (The Rackspace Cloud)
As like most services from Rackspace, Cloud Load Balancer too is a hourly based, pay as you go service. Average cost is $0.00025 per minute. That translates the monthly cost to $10.95/Month. UK based Cloud Load Balancer will have a bit lesser cost.
As there is enough change of getting overcharged, make sure to understand every aspect of Cloud Load Balancer and ask Rackspace support precisely your questions. You can access the Cloud Load Balancer technology from your Rackspace control panel (or any other Cloud Load Balancer service’s control panel).
Rackspace themselves have a fantastic tutorial written by Ross on how to configure Cloud Load Balancer. There is no meaning of repeating the same tutorial here, except the few points while configuring your Cloud Load Balancer :
Use a meaningful name for your Cloud Load Balancer, do not use special characters.
Second is protocol. In the tutorial usual Cloud Load Balancer configuration is shown, so it is http. If you are using a secured socket connection, make sure to use https, otherwise Cloud Load Balancer will not work rightly.
IP is important for Cloud Load Balancer configuration. Service Net uses Rackspace’s own internal Cloud Servers, so it is free (any internal bandwidth usage is not counted by Rackspace.)
Cloud Load Balancer Algorithm – Round Robin, Least Connections algorithms or weighed. There is an option of Random. Random should work perfectly for the most websites, unless you are sure what you are going to do, do not use Round Robin algorithm.
Geographic Region and Nodes – These are the last steps of Cloud Load Balancer configuration and practically Rackspace can not help you much about your requirement as it is you who knows the data of Google Analytics. You must configure it in a way that it is located closest to the majority of the visitors.
