# Database clustering

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/database-clustering/117591>\
**Category:** Deployment\
**Created:** [October 18, 2007, 11:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/database-clustering/117591 "2007-10-18T11:12:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jon\_Evans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Jon\_Evans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jon_Evans)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 11:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/database-clustering/117591/1 "2007-10-18T11:12:11Z")

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Hi,

I have a Rails site which has been in production for the last year or  
so. It’s hosted on a fairly powerful AMD Opteron server, and I have  
another copy of it on another identical server. At a pinch I have a  
third similar server I could put it on as well. They are all running  
Linux.

We have a couple of Cisco local directors which we can use for load  
balancing.

The only thing preventing me from moving forward with this plan is the  
database. At the moment there is only one server actually in use, and  
the MySQL database is on the same machine. Should I be looking to  
create a database cluster on the 2 / 3 machines? How? Should I be  
thinking of moving it to PostgreSQL? I’d prefer to stick with a free  
solution so I don’t have to wait months for approval. 🙂 I guess in  
practice that limits me to MySQL or PostgreSQL.

The eventual goal is that I should be able to take a server completely  
offline (for upgrade, or hardware failure) and the site should stay  
up.

I’d appreciate any insights. How is everyone else managing their  
databases when they have more than one app server?

Jon

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jon\_Evans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Jon\_Evans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jon_Evans)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/database-clustering/117591/2 "2007-11-13T14:46:59Z")

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Hi Jon,

A simple solution, maybe it solves your problems: Clustering databases  
without changing anything on your code…

Very fast an easy to use!

Take a look at a8cjdbc: [http://www.activ8.at/homepage/en/a8cjdbc.php](http://www.activ8.at/homepage/en/a8cjdbc.php)

I’m using it with Postgres be MySQL is no problem too.

greetings,  
Wolfgang

Jon Evans wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have a Rails site which has been in production for the last year or  
> so. It’s hosted on a fairly powerful AMD Opteron server, and I have  
> another copy of it on another identical server. At a pinch I have a  
> third similar server I could put it on as well. They are all running  
> Linux.
> 
> We have a couple of Cisco local directors which we can use for load  
> balancing.
> 
> The only thing preventing me from moving forward with this plan is the  
> database. At the moment there is only one server actually in use, and  
> the MySQL database is on the same machine. Should I be looking to  
> create a database cluster on the 2 / 3 machines? How? Should I be  
> thinking of moving it to PostgreSQL? I’d prefer to stick with a free  
> solution so I don’t have to wait months for approval. 🙂 I guess in  
> practice that limits me to MySQL or PostgreSQL.
> 
> The eventual goal is that I should be able to take a server completely  
> offline (for upgrade, or hardware failure) and the site should stay  
> up.
> 
> I’d appreciate any insights. How is everyone else managing their  
> databases when they have more than one app server?
> 
> Jon