Using multiple VPS nodes for databsae, email, apache

[tank]

Just wondering what the best way to go about spreading the load/system out would be if I wanted to set up 3 VPS nodes (and possible different machines) for all our hosting clients... 1 for email, one for database and one for Apache. So to connect to the database a client would type in db.ourhosting.com and then the user and pw. for mail they would hit mail.ourhosting.com and for their web stuff it would be normal.

The reason for this would be to
1) spread the load between nodes for MySQL and Apache and possible whatever load email or bulk sent mail (mailling lists)
2) Keep email up for our clients if the database crashes or if the site gets hit with DDos or some other attack. I think this could be a selling point for clients facilitating a possible increase in hosting charges.

This might not be the most cost effective route. I'm just wondering about how it could be set up. Is this something Jag could do for me start to finish? And really just looking at any pros and cons of a systems set up this way.

[jason]

Tank,

Interesting idea. In the email arena I could really see this as a plus. Most web hosts (JPC included) offer simple, mediocre email services--simple POP and/or IMAP mailboxes that usually do a good job of handling email, but don't do anything more. Many companies want more from their "email," like calendaring, mailbox sharing, contact management, task lists, etc., and the "mail hosting" industry is getting pretty big. You could use something like Zimbra (which I've never used, but that looks really cool) to provide all of that for a premium price. You might even consider offering "Outlook compatible" email-only plans on a per mailbox basis.

A couple of roadblocks that come to mind for your initial proposal, though:
* quotas: would you sell your plans with separate email, MySQL, and web quotas (and how would you divide them?). You might be able to set up some kind of quota manager via NFS or soemthing like that, but I'm nt sure.

* control panels: how well do they support multi-server operations. Would you need different logins to admin MySQL and email accounts and web features?

* I had a third, but I forgot it.

All-in-all, it does sound like a doable proposition and something that could be worthwile if you take the time to work out all the details.

Another thing, instead of making clients use your server addresses to access the mail server, add A records to tehir DNS zones so that sql.theircompany.com points to the IP of the MySQL server, mail.theircompany.com points to the IP of mail server, etc.

--Jason