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This is a great article and I've bookmarked it for future reference. I observe, though, that if you are tuning a system to this level of detail you likely have

This is a great article and I've bookmarked it for future reference. I observe, though, that if you are tuning a system to this level of detail you likely have a number of web servers behind a load balancer. To be complete, the discussion should include optimization of interactions with the load balancer, e.g. where to terminate https, etc.

annnnd 9y ago
> should include optimization of interactions with the load balancer, e.g. where to terminate https, etc. I'm curious - is there a case where you want to terminate HTTPS on end device instead of (only) on load balancer?
- toast0 9y ago
  Ignoring any privacy implications, terminating https on the load balancer means the load balancer will use more cpu and memory than if it was just a tcp terminating load balancer or working at layer 2. In a lot of architectures, the load balancer may not have as nice of a failover story as the hosts behind it, minimizing state on the load balancer could make state syncing possible for a quicker failover. If you're running load balancing appliances, those tend to be expensive, so you probably want to let them only do what they have to, so you don't need to buy more of them.
  - annnnd 9y ago
    Thanks!
daenney 9y ago
> To be complete, the discussion should include optimization of interactions with the load balancer, e.g. where to terminate https, etc. Not necessarily. There are other ways of spreading traffic, like DNS round robin for example, using the DNS delegation trick or even have client-side load balancing (which is perfectly feasible if you control the client, like your own app for example). The article itself mentions that what they're talking about is the Dropbox Edge network, an nginx proxy tier, which sounds like load balancers to me.
- bogomipz 9y ago
  Using round robin DNS for load balancing is almost never a good idea. What is "the DNS delegation trick"?

annnnd 9y ago

> should include optimization of interactions with the load balancer, e.g. where to terminate https, etc. I'm curious - is there a case where you want to terminate HTTPS on end device instead of (only) on load balancer?

toast0 9y ago
Ignoring any privacy implications, terminating https on the load balancer means the load balancer will use more cpu and memory than if it was just a tcp terminating load balancer or working at layer 2. In a lot of architectures, the load balancer may not have as nice of a failover story as the hosts behind it, minimizing state on the load balancer could make state syncing possible for a quicker failover. If you're running load balancing appliances, those tend to be expensive, so you probably want to let them only do what they have to, so you don't need to buy more of them.
- annnnd 9y ago
  Thanks!

daenney 9y ago

> To be complete, the discussion should include optimization of interactions with the load balancer, e.g. where to terminate https, etc. Not necessarily. There are other ways of spreading traffic, like DNS round robin for example, using the DNS delegation trick or even have client-side load balancing (which is perfectly feasible if you control the client, like your own app for example). The article itself mentions that what they're talking about is the Dropbox Edge network, an nginx proxy tier, which sounds like load balancers to me.

bogomipz 9y ago
Using round robin DNS for load balancing is almost never a good idea. What is "the DNS delegation trick"?