Hardware Configuration Options
| Component | Single, large machine (1n) | Load Balanced Web Server (2n) | Dedicated Load Balancer (2n) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Load Balancer | Tier 1 | Tier 1 | Tier 1 |
| SSL | Tier 1 | Tier 1 | Tier 1 |
| Web Server (Apache, IIS, etc) | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 1 |
| Servlet Container (uPortal, SSP) | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 2 |
Hardware Configuration Evaluation
| Categories | Single, large machine (1n) | Load Balanced Web Server (2n) | Dedicated Load Balancer (2n) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pros | Easy to manage
| Easy to scale Portal hardware is relatively inexpensive | Easier to scale Portal hardware is relatively inexpensive SSL is directly supported and performs well |
| Cons | Cost Not scalable | Apache's load balancing features are limited Performing SSL with Apache is CPU intensive | Most expensive configuration ($10-50k) |
Software Configuration Options
| Software | Operating System | Java Virtual Machine | Database | Web Server/Server Container | Connection Pooling | Load Testing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Options | Linux Solaris Windows | Sun IBM | PostreSQL SQL Server | Tomcat Resin Apache HTTP Server & Tomcat Apache HTTP Server & Resin Sun ONE Web Application Server IBM Websphere | Web Container's Connection Pool Apache Commons DBCP JDBC Connection Pool | Jmeter |
Example uPortal Configurations
2008 unconference session notes