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"How to Monitor Your Corporate Network & Servers "
Lets look at how you can monitor and manage your corporate servers & websites from anywhere using network monitoring software.
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How Does Multiple Server Hosting Impacts Your Websites’ Uptime?
This article describes the technology behind multiple server hosting and how you may utilize it to maximize your site's security and uptime. TSplus Server Monitoring is a tool for server and website surveillance designed with ergonomy, ease-of-use and simplicity in mind.
Multiple Servers for Website Hosting
The hosting of web sites has essentially become a commodity. There is very little distinguishing one hosting company from the next. Core plans and features are the same and price is not always a true determining factor. In fact, choosing a host based on the cheapest price can work out more expensive in the long term with respect to reliability issues and possible loss of sales due to overall website downtime.
Selecting a host from the thousands of providers and resellers can be a very daunting task, which may result in a hit and miss approach. But although hosting may have become commonplace, one distinguishing feature that you must always look for is reliability.
Reliability of Hosting for Website Uptime
At the heart of any hosting company's reliability is redundancy. This ensures that if a problem exists at one point, there will be an alternative which ensures continuity as seamlessly and transparently as possible.
Most hosts employ redundant network connections. These are the high-speed pipes that route data from the server to your web browser. But, redundant 'multiple web servers' have been extremely rare and very expensive, requiring costly routing equipment which has previously been used only in mission critical applications of Fortune 500 companies.
Special DNS feature for Reliability and Website Uptime
However, a very neat but little-known Domain Name Server (DNS) feature called 'round robin' allows the selection and provision of a particular IP address from a 'pool' of addresses when a DNS request arrives.
What is an IP address?
To understand what this has to do with server reliability, it's important to remember that the DNS database maps a host name to their IP address. So instead of using a hard to remember series of numbers (IP address), we just type in your web browser www.yourdomain.com, to get to your website.
Of the importance of DNS for Website Uptime!
Now, typically it takes at least 2 to 3 days to propagate or ‘spread the word’ of your DNS info throughout the internet. That's why, when you register or transfer a domain name, it isn't immediately available to people browsing the web.
DNS Delays in Multiple Web Server Hosting
This propagation delay has stymied the security benefits of hosting your site on multiple servers. Indeed, your site would be down for a couple of days if something went awry with one server. You would have to change your DNS to reflect your second server and wait days before the change was picked up in routers on the internet. (Please note there is no mention here of potential delay in noticing the failure of the original server.)
The DNS Strategy for Reliable Multiple Server Hosting
However, the round robin DNS strategy solves this predicament, by mapping your domain name to more than one IP address, thus cutting out the propagation delays.
Select hosting companies now employ the DNS round robin technique in conjunction with 'failover monitoring'.
Website Uptime thanks to Multiple Web Server Hosting
The DNS round robin failover monitoring process starts by a web hosting company setting up your site on two or more independent web servers (preferably with different IP blocks assigned to them). Your domain name will therefore have 2 or more IP Addresses assigned to it.
Then the failover monitor watches your web server(s) by dispatching data to a URL you specify and looking for particular text in the results. When the system detects that one of your IP addresses is returning an error, and the others aren't, it pulls that IP address out of the list. The DNS then points your domain name to the working IP address or addresses.
If any of your IP's come back online, they are restored to the IP pool. This effectively and safely keeps your site online – even if one of your web servers goes down.
Minimum Detection Delays and Server & Website Monitoring
The average failure detection and recovery time with a system like this can be as low as 15 minutes. This time varies depending on the speed of your site and the nature of the failure and also how long other ISP's cache (save) your DNS information.
Of course, you must bear in mind the matter of how frequently data is synchronized between your website's servers. If you have chosen a hosting company, this will be their responsibility, and things may become complicated where databases and user sessions are involved.
Monitoring your multiple Servers and Websites for Uptime
The very expensive hardware-based failover monitoring systems that point a virtual IP address to other ISP's, while behind the scenes juggling a number of unique IP addresses on different servers, is of course the most 'elegant' solution to multi server hosting.That way, the whole issue of ISP's caching your information does not come into play.
This is where TSplus Server Monitoring will work its magic. You can keep a close eye on various aspects of your servers and websites, their uptime, downtime, usage, etc., so you will know instantly if anything is down.
What's more, via our software's user-friendly console, you can set up alerts for any items and thresholds you choose, and receive these via email or Teams. This keeps you and your team informed, wherever you are and whenever events take place.
TSplus Server Monitoring to ensure Website Uptime
Therefore, for sites that need to have true 99.99995% uptime, without huge outlays of money, the technology is readily available. TSplus Server Monitoring will go a long way towards ensuringyour websites run smoothly. certain proprietary failure monitoring systems are now relatively cheap to apply.
Monitoring your websites
The time taken for other ISP's caching yoISP's will use to determine how long to cache your DNS information.
Backups of your site will help and should be taken at least weekly. And all your scripts should at least have security updates as soon as they are released.
It's your site, so make sure it stays in your control. TSplus Server Monitoring is here to make the job easier for you. To try or buy our software, visit our webpage
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