Web application clustering involves two aspects: setting up an HTTP load balancer, and telling JBoss to make the application's user sessions HA. How to do the former depends on what load balancer you choose (mod_cluster
is our suggested choice); the latter could not be simpler—just add the <distributable/>
tag to your application's web.xml
file.
Let's see in concrete how to pursue both steps.
You have several choices available in order to achieve load balancing of your HTTP requests; you can opt for a hardware load balancer that sits in front of your cluster of servers, or you can choose from the many available software solutions for JBoss AS, which include the following:
Use ApacheTomcat's
mod_jk
to route your requests to your nodesUse Apache
mod_proxy
that configures Apache to act as a proxy server and forwards requests to JBoss AS nodesUse JBoss' built-in solution
mod_cluster
to achieve dynamic load balancing of your requests...