Thanks for the suggestions, questions inline... <Snip/>
All the main data is in a centralized database. OTRS runs on multiple webservers, all talking to the same database, that way theres no need to synchronize. Just make sure the Database machine is rock solid.
This is where I was thinking about the multi-master database. I can't use just one database because that still gives me a single point of failure which is a bad thing. It shouldn't be too hard since MySQL supports this now.
The only thing you need to really worry about is both websesrvers replicating work with their cron jobs
You can do one of two things: A) Make a "WhichServer" table in your database, each webserver gets a script to check and see whis supposed to be the main server, and who is still alive, and who needs to be running the cron jobs
B) Let BOTH webservers run the cronjobs, just stagger them a little. You wouldnt even need heartbeats, then.
Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to prevent race conditions here, especially if the clocks on the servers had significant drift. With a heartbeat, it would allow a more serialized process which would prevent race conditions. Of course, where do I put my heartbeat server ;-). Can two heartbeat servers monitor the same boxes? How does that work? Thanks! Trevor -- Heredocs, theredocs, everwhereadocsdocs old macdonald had a server farm he eyed the I/O