Staying 'balanced'

Prefer Software solution.

http://www.cyberoam.com/Load_Balancing_Failover.htm

I worked on a project recently that required load balancing and failover ability for web servers and the like but we didn't and couldn't really spend the money on clusters.

We used something called UltraMonkey (www.ultramonkey.org/). I know it sounds kind of stupid but just don't tell management the name of it and you should be ok.

I ran it on a debian install but I believe that it will run on most of the major distros. I have to say that it worked like a champ and I was really impressed with it (not that it takes a lot).

Depending on what exactly you are trying to do it may be the perfect solution. The price is definitely right.

i bought two 3com 3c-980C-txm SERVER VICs for my SQL server. The CD also included #Coms Dynamic Access program.

Almost everything went very well and other than the exceptions below seem to be working well.

1. once dynamic access is loaded and installs the connections- they are very difficult to remove.
Even using the standard uninstall leaves fragments that can adversely affect the computers access ove the LAN.

2. I have found when I am running a failover program, that occasionaly the NICS seem to go to sleep- with no action on the server. This causes the failover program to incorrectly fail over- the only way I have found to stop this is to go to the NIC configurations page and un check the "device can sleep" box and re check the "this device may bring the computer out of standby"
warning- when you reboot, the NICs have to be rechecked.

I feel that the best of the failover bunch is a product called DoubleTake from NSI Software. I have had excellent results from this product. I have also learned about a product from Marathon Technologies that I will be testing in the future.