load balancing with two servers

Question

I would like to configure two servers to achieve load balancing (maybe using mod_proxy_balancer). The problem is not the number of requests, but the load associated with each request (which I want to share between servers).

The question is, can one of the 'backend servers' be also used to receive and distribute the requests?

I mean, having something like

<Proxy balancer://mycluster>
**BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1** (or localhost?)
BalancerMember http://62.148.159.17
</Proxy>

Thank you...

Answer 1

Yes, you can do that. Typically in a rails environment you use proxy to multiple instances of mongrel which run on the same server.

What you would do is configure an instance of apache to listen on port 80 and then it will proxy to an instance of apache that is configured to listen on port 1234 or something else of your choosing.

Thanks,

Matt.