Load Balancing Without a Load Balancer

Application delivery controllers perform a great service to direct traffic to servers which should handle client requests. Decisions on where to send information can be based on a variety of factors. Like their kid brother, the server load balancer, they present a virtual service address, linked to more than one backend system. By monitoring services on individual servers, the ADC or SLB drops unreliable services from pools to ensure high availability. Further, they divvy requests between servers which can answer them, balancing a load which might be higher than one system could accept.

There are times when you don't need the delivery options an ADC can provide, and even an SLB solution might not make sense. A tandem set of appliances for each local area network where servers reside is expensive to purchase and maintain vendor support. They also require power and use precious rack space. If a server load balancer is all you need to ensure service availability while dividing load, perhaps a different solution could do the job.

A Ride Over The Bridge And Back

Wonderful weather last Saturday, so I took the train into San Francisco and decided to ride my bicycle around the city. Starting close to AT&T Park, I rode down the Embarcadero, along the beach, and then over the Golden Gate Bridge. Turning back, I went through the city streets a bit more, through Chinatown and around Russian Hill, before heading back to the Caltrain.

Sir Geoffery of Lebowski

This past weekend, I went to CELLspace to catch a performance by The Primitive Screwheads. This Shakespearean twist on the Coen Brothers film, The Big Lebowski was very well done: quite funny, worked great with audience participation, went through the entire story and balanced incorporation of contemporary and "olde" elements. The production, Much Ado About Lebowski, has only one weekend left, June 24 and 25.

Verily, that rug did tie the room together

Murals and Graffiti on Bryant Street

Went into San Francisco last night and saw some cool spray painted artwork on Bryant Street, around 18th Street. Thought I would share a few photos I took.

Hindi Support For Linux

Ever visited a web site, like the one pictured above, and saw a bunch of (Unicode) blocks instead of the text you expected? Install support for the language you want on your Linux host, just like I did for the above-pictured Punjabi.

Kung Fu Panda 2 Credits

Name in credits of Kung Fu Panda 2, a photo by s_w_ellis on Flickr.

If you have not watched Kung Fu Panda 2, what are you waiting for? Call in sick, remove your kids from school, and get to the theater! This film is an excellent follow-up to the first and you must see it in 3D. Just amazing!

This is the scene in the credits where my name is listed. No, I am not a part of the creative staff, although us geeks must be creative at times to support the artists.

Enjoy the movie...

Linux Host-to-Host IPSEC

Sometimes, you want to encrypt all IP traffic between two Linux hosts. An easy way to do this with Red Hat Linux is to use IPSEC. While there are many applications which are encrypted, such as secure shell or even transport layer security and secure sockets layer over usually-unencrypted applications, IPSEC works at a lower level. IPSEC therefore can work regardless of the application and encrypts all IP communication.