zhubaining's blog

It is rather long story, see http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Networks-and-Storage/Inside-MySpacecom pls.

Here we are focusing on how its web site architecture evolved.
The changes are outlined as below:
1. The very beginning: several web servers + one database server
2. master database server(for writing) + slave database servers(for reading).
3. Vertical Partitioning: with separate databases for parts of the Web site that served different functions such as the log-in screen, user profiles and blogs.
4. Using SAN instead of storage devices directly attached to its database servers.
5. Adding cache between web servers and database servers. The cache is also a better place to store transitory data that doesn’t need to be recorded in a database, such as temporary files created to track a particular user’s session on the Web site.
6. 64bit computing:upgrade to SQL Server 2005 and the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003.

*misc:
1. In case of power outage: the main data center was designed to guarantee reliable service through connections to two different power grids, backed up by battery power and a generator with a 30-day supply of fuel.
2. Windows 2003 servers shut down unexpectedly on multiple occasions. The culprit turned out to be a built-in feature of the operating system designed to prevent distributed denial of service attacks