Take the 2-minute tour ×

I get a static IP from my internet provider. I have bought 3 old desktops to turns them into linux servers. I want to use one server for deploying my website, one for storing data (most of them are images) and one for running background jobs.

I only have one static IP. Do you know any method/book which can help me setup a cluster of servers?

share|improve this question

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 5 '12 at 3:03

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

closed as not a real question by Mark Henderson Jan 5 '12 at 5:58


This is not what a cluster is. –  MDMarra Jan 5 '12 at 3:07

3 Answers 3

You need to have router connected to your Internet connection, using your public IP address. Then connect the three servers to the router, configuring the router to forward connections on port 80 (the http port) to the computer with the web server. All the internal servers should have private static IP addresses, so they can communicate with each other and so the router knows their addresses as well.

share|improve this answer
I want a server for web deployment and one server for storing image data. Can outsider request and download photos from the image server? –  Billy Pham Jan 5 '12 at 5:47

It is unclear why you want to run these on "three old desktops" instead of a single, newer, much higher specification machine (which would use less power and be less susceptible to failure).

I am assuming IPv4. You will probably have a NAT router. You can NAT forward the public-facing port numbers (for example, 80 = http and 443 = https) to the web server, and have the other servers have only private IP addresses; they can still communicate with each other.

share|improve this answer
3 servers are just a start. I want to build a cluster of 10-20 servers with limited budget. Each costs $150 with 3Ghz chip, 2G Ram & 200Gb hard disk. I want to replicate Google's strategy in early stage but there is no book/tutorial about this. –  Billy Pham Jan 5 '12 at 5:44

get a router,forward port 80 to the one for the website,port 21 to the one with your files(ftp server required) and the background jobs depend on what the jobs are... maybe get vnc/rdp too to remote control one of the pcs

share|improve this answer
