When is the right time to start adding(or thinking about adding) servers to your Web Application? What are the difficulties involved in going from a single server(DB and Web) to multiple?
For example:
Most of the time you start with one sever that you use for both DB and Web then you split you DB/Web onto a different server then go to multiple web servers(which creates session issues) then possibly a NAS for the DB etc etc.
Answer
When is the right time to start
adding(or thinking about adding)
servers to your Web Application?
...(going from a single server ... to multiple)
Think about it: From the beginning.
Start adding: When you get your first "server too busy" error. Anything sooner is premature optimization.
(Unless your web app is mission critical, in which case you probably aren't starting from scratch and don't need to poll the serverfault.com community.)
But seriously, for modern consumer web applications, getting "server too busy" can actually be a good thing. It certainly never hurt Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. The danger with adding servers too early is that your app will never be as popular as you are expecting and you've ended up wasting money that could have been spent on feature development.
If you're one of the lucky few who actually has a hit web property, then (a) congratulations, and (b) you'll be able to measure your average response times from your log files and can take a more metric-driven approach to adding servers.
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