Question: What are the main roles of servers involved in Hosting Controller cluster?
Solution:
HC supports distributed/load-balanced setup. Distributed setup is a setup where Web server, Mail server, DNS server and Database server may or may not be distributed among multiple machines instead of a single machine in a cluster.
HC strictly follows the principal of standardization for the cluster. This standardization is done under the Global Settings of Server Manager section. You only have to set standards for all the roles (Database server, Web server, DNS server, Mail Server) of servers in your cluster once and HC7 will be functioning properly.
Every server can have one or more role(s) in the cluster. This role(s) needs to be set every time a new server is added to the cluster. Following are the four available roles for a server, in the cluster.
- Web Server
- DNS Server
- Mail Server
- Database Server
Role Capacity: Capacity of resources for a respective role of servers in the cluster.
Note:
- Each server must be assigned with at least one role. For example, the role of a web server is to have websites and the number of websites a server may depends on the resources of that server. These resources may contain bandwidth of the server, disk space, and processor speed and so on. So, if a server is required to be added as a web server, its role capacity depends on all these resources.
- Each server must have same global settings for a specific role but the role capacity can be different. For example if we have set MS FTP for the user account under web server settings then all the web servers must have MS FTP enabled but the number of websites can be 500 for one web server and 700 for another.
Web Server: The role of a Web server is to have websites on it. Here, set the maximum number of websites a web server may have in the cluster. This number is the role capacity of the Web server. The Global Settings are same for every web server in the cluster, but number of websites may vary.
DNS Server: The role of a DNS server is to have DNS zones on it. Here set the maximum number of DNS zones a DNS server may have in the cluster. This number is the role capacity for the DNS server. The Global Settings are same for every DNS server in the cluster, but number of DNS zones can be different.
Mail Server: The role of a Mail server is to have Mail domains on it. Here set the maximum number of mail domains a mail server may have in the cluster. This number is the role capacity for the Mail server. The Global Settings are same for every mail server in the cluster, but number of mail domains can be different.
Database Server: The role of the Database server is to have databases (database of HC is not included in these databases) on it. Here set the maximum number of databases, a database server may have in the cluster. This number is the role capacity for the Database server. The Global Settings are same for every database server in the cluster, but number of databases can be different.