Twinned Hosting

[Paul M]

Julian Price wrote:
>> I'm surprised you didn't suggest using BGP multi-site to ensure that the
>> server was always online and not partial to ISP or network outages.
> 
> I didn't mention it because I've never heard of it!  Sounds interesting
> though.

...snip...
well, it's good you're doing your research now :-)


> If I have 2 dedicated servers in 2 different data centres run by 2
> different hosting companies, can I use BGP or is that out of my hands?
> How does it help avoid network outages?

yes, in fact having different providers at different locations helps
protect you against a system-wide failure with one provider.

the cheapest way to get this done is to find someone who already has a
multi-site BGP failover solution, otherwise you need to get a nice big
block of PI addresses* from RIPE, get some BGP capable routers, arrange
with upstream ISPs to take BGP announcements and get it all configured
perfectly otherwise it'll make your system more unreliable!

* we have this at $JOB: servers at two distant locations, routed via a
/22 block which guarantee global routability, anything smaller than a
/23 might be problematic.