Re: Index location for multiple servers

On 07.12.2006, at 17:11, Craig Jolicoeur wrote:

> I have a rails app that is going to be deployed across several  
> servers.
>
> In my understanding of acts_as_ferret, the index files are kept in the
> index folder in the root of the rails app.  This won't work for  
> multiple
> servers, of course, since all the servers will have their own  
> directory
> tree.
>
> How are people using ferret for apps deployed on multiple servers?
> Could I run the index files through the database much like I do with
> session info to prevent this problem?  Or is there a completely
> different work around that I am just not thinking of?

I haven't done this myself yet, but I think the best approach is to  
employ an index server. The Ferret index is kept on one machine which  
runs a DRb service. The other servers do not talk directly to Ferret  
but to the index server which performs the indexing/searching and  
returns the results as Ruby objects to the clients.

I suppose this fit's best into Rails' share-nothing approach to scaling.

--
Andy