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VPSs behaving like synchronised swimmers???

tim.jtq

Super Pro Member
Hi Everyone

If a VPS company has more than one datercentre (perhaps in different countries), is it possible for a customer set up multiple VPSs across the multiple datacentres in a manner so that they behave like synchronised swimmers with a shared single external IP address?

Would it therefore be possible to interact with the multiple VPSs as if they are just one VPS?
(This includes logging on via RDP. Everything you do during the RDP session including changing settings would be happening on all of the VPSs simultaneously.)

I am asking this because I think that what I have desribed above is possibly the holy grail of redundancy.

If what I am describing is possible, can anyone here describe for me the technical steps involved in setting this (or something similar) up?

Thank you very much.
 
Short answer: No. :)

Longer answer: Obviously you are not the first one to be after such holy grail and the way you presented them is not really possible, especially with Windows.
In order to achieve something somewhat similar (ie maintain some sort of configuration and data coherence) several layers of abstraction had to be invented in the past 10-15y, such as config management tools (puppet, ansible etc), infrastructure as code (terraform etc etc), containerisation (docker) and so on.

And the result is not really a heavenly choir, rather a technological mess giving headaches to dev/ops (IT) people around the world! :))

On the IP side of things, that bit you mentioned is theoretically possible with a bit of networking gymnastics. You won't find that at Hetzner though.

What I'd like to add is that there is a point where the complexity introduced in the system to enable such levels of redundancy and availability start to work against you, introducing fragility and multiple points of failure.

In most cases a single server is good enough and downtime is not a tragedy (you are not the London Stock Exchange or a nuclear plant), servers need to rest as well! :)

:)
 
Short answer: No. :)

Longer answer: Obviously you are not the first one to be after such holy grail and the way you presented them is not really possible, especially with Windows.
In order to achieve something somewhat similar (ie maintain some sort of configuration and data coherence) several layers of abstraction had to be invented in the past 10-15y, such as config management tools (puppet, ansible etc), infrastructure as code (terraform etc etc), containerisation (docker) and so on.

And the result is not really a heavenly choir, rather a technological mess giving headaches to dev/ops people around the world! :))

On the IP side of things, that bit you mentioned is theoretically possible with a bit of networking gymnastics. You won't find that at Hetzner though.

What I'd like to add is that there is a point where the complexity introduced in the system to enable such levels of redundancy and availability start to work against you, introducing fragility and multiple points of failure.

In many cases, a single server is good enough and downtime is not a tragedy (you are not the London Stock Exchange or a nuclear plant), servers need to rest as well! :)

:)
Hi Lucian

Thank you very much indeed for your very informative reply.

From what you have said, I guess that "full" redundancy is a myth.
 
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Hi Lucian

Thank you very much indeed for your very informative reply.

From what you have said, I guess that "full" redundancy is a myth.
Well, in this case the devil is in the details, it really depends what you want to do.
Making a web site "fully redundant" can be done with relative ease employing various techniques, for example. It's not so simple for other applicaitons.
 
Well, in this case the devil is in the details, it really depends what you want to do.
Making a web site "fully redundant" can be done with relative ease employing various techniques, for example. It's not so simple for other applicaitons
Thank you very much for this.

I am wanting to instal a SIP server and I am hoping to minimse the interuption of phone calls.
 
Thank you very much for this.

I am wanting to instal a SIP server.
Ok, don't have experience with SIP, but I know it's UDP based which is not the easiest thing to load-balance, especially if you want totally separate locations,

A simplistic approach would be something like:

1 - build 2 VPS with similar SIP configuration
2 - use a hostname instead of IPs in your devices (phones)
3 - set up some automation in the DNS zone so the A record of the hostnames points to the VPS that is up and running (you determine this however you want, ping loss etc)

This way the hostname will always resolve to the IP of the VPS that is up.

Point 3 is not easily done, I suggest you use a 3rd party, PCExtreme have an offering like this:
 
Ok, don't have experience with SIP, but I know it's UDP based which is not the easiest thing to load-balance, especially if you want totally separate locations,

A simplistic approach would be something like:

1 - build 2 VPS with similar SIP configuration
2 - use a hostname instead of IPs in your devices (phones)
3 - set up some automation in the DNS zone so the A record of the hostnames points to the VPS that is up and running (you determine this however you want, ping loss etc)

This way the hostname will always resolve to the IP of the VPS that is up.

Point 3 is not easily done, I suggest you use a 3rd party, PCExtreme have an offering like this:
H Lucian

Thank you very much indeed for another brilliant and informative reply.

Across the various threads I have posted to in this forum, you have always provided very intelligent and helpful replies.
 
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