Mirroring is a technique that duplicates the data sets. Many web hosting server providers of Mirroring servers for Windows and Linux OS.A mirrored website is an exact copy of a particular website, it offers multiple sources of the same information. This technique offers reliable access to huge downloads. Mirroring is a type of file synchronization.
Mirroring architecture is such that two systems are linked together. At a given point of time, data is sent to either of the systems, but it can be seen on both. Mirroring can work over LAN or WAN connection, it can also be encrypted.
In a mirroring service architecture, two servers with similar configuration in two different racks are set up. Out of these two, one is a Master Server and the other is a Slave or Secondary Server. The benefit of such an architecture is that if incase the master server fails due to any reason, the Slave immediately takes over and function as a Master Server, hence preventing any downtime. Usually RSYNC and FAM modules are used for the purpose of Server Mirroring.
The slave server takes the place of the master server just incase it fails to function. This is known as the Failover process. With the help of Failover, user and application requests that are directed to the failed master server are routed to the slave server.
The copy of the replicated data from slave server back to the main server is known as the Restoration process. Restoration of the data requires selection of the source, target and the correct replication set. The information on either of the servers are already maintained, so remembering the exact data is simple.
This kind of architecture proves to be very effective and useful ofcourse when due to some reasons a disk crashes. With this kind of architecture, data loss is almost impossible. When the Master comes back online, the slave transfers the updates back to it. This is known as the Restoration process.
