Load Balancing / Squid Help

After all of our hard work optimizing and tweaking code on our existing web server and database server, we have decided we need another web server. We have it all ready and waiting to be put in use, but I have been struggling with the issue of load balancing.

I've tried using "pen" to load balance these servers, but pen does not pass the client's IP through and it ends up so that everyone has the same IP which is not good as I run a community based website and I need to be able to ban specific IP addresses from the site.

The next logical (and most likely better) solution is Squid, so I am told. The only problem is that I have never used it before and I don't want to mess it up as we have a very popular site and downtime would be bad. I'm not an idiot when it comes to these things, I don't use any control panels or whatnot, I am just unfamiliar with load balancing in general as I have never had to deal with it. I've read the majority of the documentation on squid-cache.org, but was wondering if anyone knows of some nice guides to set it up... or even any tips/experiences/suggestions.



Thank you. Load Balancing / Squid Help

edit: Keep in mind that PHP/sessions/REMOTE_ADDR all come into play here as well.

 

 

 

 

Top