OT (was: Re: SparcStation 5 as Server)

[Jeff Bachtel <jeff@cepheid.org>]

> > I personally use IPs for each virtual host because it significantly
> > eases configuration. IPs are easy enough to move from one computer
> > to another.
> 
> Easier than changing a DNS entry to point elsewhere?

Yes, mostly due to the fact that because of staggered DNS cache
expiration, you will have to keep two servers up and synced for a few
days until you are sure the old ip is flushed from DNS. And even then
there are a few caching servers which will have the old ip.

Hence, ip based virtual hosts have a much faster turnaround time for
discrete (per host) reconfigurations.

> Bad habit, and it just doesn't scale well (and we run out
> of IP addresses).

Scales fine, allows the use of TLS (SSL, whatever), allows quick
reconfigurations, allows transparent virtual ftp/ssh hosts, etc. The
use of CNAMEs for virtual hosts is a hack added into HTTP to cope with
the limited resource of IPv4 space. From the practical point of view,
its a useful hack, but until SSL and (s)ftp move up a layer as far as
address recognition goes, it will still not be an ideal solution.

jeff 

-- 
Jeff Bachtel  (root@ISC,TAMU)    http://www.cepheid.org/~jeff
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