Cloud Computing
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Here’s an interesting Article I came across today which goes through the basics of setting up Scalr.  Scalr is  is an open source, fully redundant, self-curing, and self-scaling hosting environment that uses Amazon EC2

This article discusses the implementation of Scalr. Scalr allows network administrators to create virtual server farms, using prebuilt components. Scalr uses four Amazon Machine Instances (AMIs) for load balancing, databases, application server, and a generic base image. Administrators can preconfigure one machine and, when the load warrants, bring online additional machines with the same image, to handle the increased requests.

By using Scalr, you can create a server farm that uses prebuilt AMIs for load balancing, web servers, and databases. You also can customize a generic AMI, which you can use to host your actual application.

Scalr monitors the health of the entire server farm, ensuring that instances stay running and that load averages stay below a configurable threshold. If an instance crashes, another one of the proper type will be launched and added to the load balancer.

Link to Article: Auto-Scaling Web Sites Using Amazon EC2 and Scalr