Simple, One-Time PHP Load Balancing Using Random Redirects

[icon512]

Hello all!

I came here through Google searching for PHP load balancing... and got to this thread: http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread171839.html

I am trying to do something similar, but what I'm trying to do is a one time, one day, quick and cheap load balancing solution using PHP.

The idea is to use a simple php script to randomly redirect users to several other servers with one static page. I am just wondering if this would be sufficient if I were to expect an influx of users for only one day (may reach up to 50,000 users within a one hour period). Below is what I have come up with using only limited php knowledge. The server running this script will be a basic dedicated virtual server by MediaTemple which should suffice as a temporary load balancer, and will be redirected to multiple GridServer accounts from MediaTemple. Do you see any problems with this?

<?php 
$servers = array("www.foo1.com", 
              "www.foo2.com", 
              "www.foo3.com"); 
$server = $servers[array_rand($servers)]; 
header("Location: http://$server"); 
?>

Thank you for taking your time to look at this! I really appreciate it!

[Froger93]

That looks fine although if this is just one static page then it's not shortening the load infact you are doubling it as they are going through two servers.

[icon512]

Well, the point is to make sure that one server is not overloaded and fails...

So even though the load time is taking a little bit longer, it's better than overloading the server and having it take minutes to load or even worse, nothing...

[Froger93]

Is this just one static page or multiple versions of an extensive website?