I am just investigating use of haproxy for the first time. I'd like the balancing algorithm to send http request to the first server in the list until the number of requests hits a configurable number. When the request limit for a server is hit, I then want new requests to go to the next server until that server hits its configurable limit. So, instead of RR, I want to load down a server before overflowing to the next server.
What I think I want to do is to always have the last server in the farm not have any requests. If it does, I will activate another server to ensure I have enough capacity to handle the load spike. But, when the last two servers go completely idle again, I can deactivate the last idle server. My servers are "in the cloud" and I pay for each one that is activated so I think this type of load balancing would help me activate only servers I need (saving me money). I would plan to automate this by having all servers included in the haproxy config but only the first server would initially be UP and all others DOWN. When a server handles a request, it makes sure that its next server is activated. When a server doesn't handle any requests for some time, it deactivates its next server (if any). Does this make sense? I'm new to scaling out and haproxy, so if this scheme already exists, please point me to where it is discussed in the documentation. Kevin
