Hi all,
sorry if this has been brought up before (I'm not reading wikitech-l on a
regular basis), but I just got an idea for reducing the server load at
Wikipedia without messing around with distributed databases and the like:
Why not distribute static images and media files for starters?
http://de.wikipedia.org/upload/9/9a/WikiReader_Internet.pdf alone will be
responsible for more than 5 GB of transfer volume this month (a guess based
on my experience with
http://tkarcher.gmxhome.de/WikiReader_Schweden.pdf ).
With more and more images and large media files on the rise, we could
noticeably reduce the server load by distributing these files.
How? Well, first we'd need some (5 to 10?) mirrors willing to sync their
data on a daily basis. Once these servers are up and running, we could
implement a simple, PHP-driven load balancing by changing the image (and
media file) source locations dynamically. (Script driven as opposed to
server driven, because we'd have to check whether the file was added within
the last 24 hours. You wouldn't want to wait for your newly added image to
appear in your article a whole day, would you?)
What do you think about it?
Thomas