- From: Kent Fitch <Kent.Fitch@its.csiro.au>
- Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 18:03:55 +1000 (EST)
- To: Monica Berko <Monica.Berko@anu.edu.au>
- Cc: www-proxy@www10.w3.org
Thanks for posting the summary. One thing that I thought of when you originally posed the question (but then forgot about) was to run a 2nd machine on the same network as the main proxy with a seperate IP #. It spends all its time just arp-ing or (maybe pinging?) the main proxy. If an arp fails (indicating that at least the network stuff is out-of-business), it reconfigures itself with the IP # of the main proxy (copies a readied version of /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 or equivalent with the main proxy's IP #) and then reboots itself, coming up with the new #. Maybe a cheapo 486/pentium with a scsi running linux/bsd could provide a "reasonable" service for a while at least, especially if the problem occurs during the weekend/night when it is least likely to be rapidly fixed. Using a machine that normally does other things as well is probably precluded by the need to change the IP #. Things get more complicated if just the proxy httpd fails, but arps/pings work, or if the main proxy magically recovers and reboots itself... It would be nice if a really sick main proxy server could realize that it was in trouble and just die cleanly. Mechanisms to do this could be imagined, maybe relying on the backup proxy to maintain a TCP/IP connection with the primary proxy on which it can send a logical signal to "please shutdown now" when the need arises. Fun to do! Kent Fitch Ph: +61 6 276 6711 ITSB CSIRO Canberra Australia kent.fitch@its.csiro.au "It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail." - Gore Vidal
Received on Thursday, 29 June 1995 04:04:52 UTC