HA Apache Web server cluster setup in 5 easy steps

Construct a highly available Apache Web server cluster that spans multiple physical or virtual Linux® servers in 5 easy steps with Linux Virtual Server and Heartbeat v2.



Spreading a workload across multiple servers, coupled with various software recovery techniques, provides a highly available environment and enhances overall RAS (Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability) of the environment.

This article illustrates the robust Apache Web server stack with 6 Apache server nodes (though 3 nodes is sufficient for following the steps outlined here) as well as 3 Linux Virtual Server (LVS) directors.

Purplenova.com: Host files and Web-Services from your PC behind Firewalls/NAT

Web hosting software provider Purplenova announced it is offering Purplenova 3.1 – The Easy Web Server, enabling users to host any content directly from an Internet-connected PC, even it is behind Firewalls/NAT.

According to company's website: "Purplenova is built around our patent pending technology that makes it possible to web-host content directly from any internet-connected computer irrespective of the network type. The Publisher (one who wants to web-host files/ services / etc) downloads and installs Purplenova on his internet-connected Windows computer. The computer could be behind Routers / Firewalls / Proxies / NAT Devices etc, and your internet connection could be of any type. In case of files and web-pages (including those with client-side scripting) web-publishing is as simple as a drag and drop of the files / folders into the Purplenova window."

"All traffic to and from the web-publisher’s computer is routed through Purplenova Master Proxy, which provides protection to the web-publisher’s computer from spam, malware, etc."

Google: Microsoft Web Servers are Used to Distribute Malware

According to Google's Online Security Blog: Microsoft IIS features twice as often (49% vs. 23%) as a malware distributing server than does Apache. This comes despite the fact that Apache appears to be in use on far more servers worldwide than does IIS. The majority of that malware appears to originate from China and South Korea, according to Google. (Curiously, most malware coming out of Germany is actually sent via Apache, not IIS.)

Google reports that IIS is likely used to distribute malware more often than Apache because many IIS installs are on pirated Windows versions which aren't configured to automatically download patches. (Even pirated Windows versions can automatically received security fixes, however.) "Our analysis demonstrates how important it is to keep web servers patched to the latest patch level," Google notes.

Search Engine Spam HOWTO

According to an article on New York Times, Microsoft researchers have discovered tens of thousands of splogs, created only to lure search-engine users to advertisements. While from time to time some of us have run across them, the Microsoft researchers have found the pages are been generated in vast numbers by a small group of shadowy operators. By following the web trail, Microsoft researchers were able to track the flow from big-name advertisers to search engine spammers. Many use Google's blogspot.com to set up spam doorway pages. 'The practice has proved to be a vexing problem for the major search companies, which struggle to prevent both spammers and companies specializing in improving Web traffic -- a field known as SEO -- from undermining their page ranking systems. Surprisingly, the researchers noted that the majority of the splogs was created from just two Web hosting companies and that as many as 68 percent of the advertisements sampled were placed by just three advertising syndicators.' The report is available at Microsoft Strider Search Ranger project page.

Web hosting companies with the largest number of infected sites

StopBadware.org (Cambridge, MA) published list of web hosting companies with the largest number of infected sites residing on their servers:

• iPowerWeb, Inc., (10,834)
• Layered Technologies, (2,513)
• ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc, (2,056)
• Internap Network Services, (1,437)
• CHINANET Guangdong province network, (786)

StopBadware.org is a nonprofit consumer protection initiative working to combat badware and is led by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute. Consumer Reports WebWatch serves as an unpaid special advisor. The initiative is supported by several high-tech companies, including Google, Lenovo and Sun Microsystems.

The Pirate Bay Hacked

According to the Pirate Bay blog “the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker”, they have been hacked: "They have got a copy of the user database. That is, your username and passwords. But, the passwords are stored encrypted, so it's not a big deal, but it's still very sad that it's out there. All e-mails are for instance encrypted as well, they will most likely not be able to decrypt them either (they are _very_ encrypted).

We encourage all our users to change passwords as soon as possible - and if you have the same password on the bay as other places, you should update them as well."

Some sources blame it on AUH (Arga Unga Hackare) group, but according to computersweden.idg.se this group had nothing to do with attack.