documents in a load balanced environment

[smueller72]

Hi all - We have the sugar application running on two load-balanced servers running over a single database instance on a third server. We have an issue with documents - i.e. when I document is created the meta data is stored to the database but not the file itself - which is stored in hierarchy of the site itself. The problem is that the user won't necessarily access that same server the next time they log in and, as a result, they will be able to view/edit the document meta data but won't necessarily be able to view/access the document itself. Is there a 'best practice' on how to handle documents in a load balanced configuration? Can we centralize the document storage easily to another server - i.e the database server - and/or store the file in the database itself? Other ideas? We can't be the only ones that are running sugar in a load-balanced environment. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Angel]

A few ideas come to mind..

1. Use rsync or other similar software to maintain the /cache/upload folders on both installations in sync with each other.

2. If you are on Linux/Unix, try making /cache/upload a symbolic link that in turn points to a central location for all your file/document storage

3. Modify the Sugar code to cause it to save and read all files/documents from a central location

The third option is the most involved and really shouldn't be necessary to get that point, but it is an option so I threw it out there for your consideration.