My algebra.com server serves about 77k pageviews and a little over a million objects requests per day (with half of it being served in just 4 hours). I peak out at 35 requests per second currently.
I use mod_perl, mysql, and perlbal with everything running on one server. The server has a solid state disk to hold mysql data. I believe that it can handle 3x-5x more traffic all by itself. However, I am thinking of ways to scale up a mod_perl installation. 1) Use a load balancer like perlbal (I am already doing that) 2) Separate a MySQL database server from webservers. 3) Being enabled by item 2, add more webservers and balancers 4) Create a separate database for cookie data (Apache::Session objects) ??? -- not sure if good idea -- (next level) 5) Use a separate database handle for readonly database requests (SELECT), as opposed to INSERTS and UPDATEs. Use replication to access multiple slave servers for read only data, and only access the master for INSERT and UPDATE and DELETE. Any thoughts?
