Re: random host

--- Gabor Hojtsy <gabor@hojtsy.hu> wrote: > >>>Could you not use something like an HTTP redirect? It could quickly > >>>check a list of active mirrors, generate a random index, and redirect to > >>>that mirror? > >> > >>That's still a hit on our server, and something we wanted to prevent ;) > > > > I agree. If we really want to "load-balance" we need it to happen in > front > > of the server itself; either with DNS or, well, a load-balancer - I vote > DNS > > :) > > > > I'm still trying to feel out the architecture and organization, both > > technically and culturally, of the mirror system and website. But, I'd > be > > happy to head-up trying to get a few core servers lined up as a "php.net > > backbone" through use of random.php.net and DNS round-robin. I don't > know > > how strangers are viewed as wanting to do stuff, but any type of "go > ahead" > > would be all I need :) > > Well, having a "php.net backbone" seems to be a good idea for me to > solve the accessibility problem. Those should be the "highly classed" > mirrors. Whether we do this classification by hand or based on access > stats (which then should be logged by our checking script) is another > questions ;) I think making it a manual process is a must. It's easy to look at any given server's upstream provider and judge it's 'closeness' to the Internet. > But if we have a select few mirrors, having this automatically work with > the user's country will be hard. There is no data available whether a > German mirror would be closer to me or a British one. Germany is closer > geographically, but I may have a much better connection to Great Britain. > > If we would be able to trust all mirrors then it would be much easier to > make this thing "close mirror" friendly. But what if there will be no > trusted mirrors in Hungary? How can some code detect which mirror has > better connection the network I am connected to? Geographic location, or closeness, isn't neseccarily related to Internet 'closeness'. Typically, the closer a server is to a backbone, that is a major upstream provider, the closer that server is to all other servers. Trying to detect what country a server is in isn't as useful as knowing how well connected the server is; what counts are hops, and after that it's the bit pipe. > Just to make clear: trusting all mirrors is still a dream, and we should > not do it ;) Sure, trusting all mirrors wouldn't be a backbone; only a selective group :) H > Goba >