> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Jonathan Rochkind
> Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 10:53 AM
> To: CODE4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: [CODE4LIB] points of failure (was Re: [CODE4LIB] resolution
> and identification )
>
> Isn't there always a single point of failure if you are expecting to be
> able to resolve an http URI via the HTTP protocol?
>
> Whether it's purl.org or not, there's always a single point of failure
> on a given http URI that you expect to resolve via HTTP, the entity
> operating the web server at the specified address. Right?
I think the answer lies in DNS. Even though you have a single DNS name
requests could be redirected to one of multiple servers, called a server
farm. I believe this is how many large sites, like Google, operate. So
even if a single server fails the load balancer sends requests to other
servers. Even OCLC does this.
> Now, if you have a collection of disparate http URIs, you have _many_
> points of failure in that collection. Any entity goes down or ceases to
> exist, and the http URIs that resolved to that entity's web server will
> stop working.
I think this also gets back to DNS. Even though you have a single DNS
name requests could be redirected to servers outside the original request
domain. So you could have distributed servers under many different domain
names.
Andy.
Received on Thu Apr 02 2009 - 11:15:39 EDT