Four virtual machines were running on my desktop. A fifth was still installing in the background.
The console reached them through a server at the colocation facility. I took a screenshot and sent it to the client with the current status.
The goal was to rebuild the Linux Virtual Server layer before touching production. LVS would sit in front of the web servers, distribute traffic, and fail over if one side stopped working.
I got the virtual version running with the same routing and failover pattern we planned to use for the live systems. Once that worked, I wanted to build the replacement web servers, put the application code on them, and have the client's team test everything within a day or two.
The virtual environment keeps this stage away from the production boxes. I can assemble the routing and failover pattern locally before scheduling changes to customer-facing systems.
It was also a lot of infrastructure for one local desktop. Five machines, multiple networks, a remote colocation host, load balancing, heartbeat, and a production plan were all sitting behind one screenshot.
The subject of my next email was "LVS failover money." It meant the routing and failover were working in the test setup.
Full routing. Failover. Same shape as production.
Next I want to build the replacement web servers, load the application, and give the client's team a day or two to test them.
Four local machines are available now. The fifth still has to finish installing before that next stage is complete.