CODEWITHSUNDEEP
jsonnode.jswebsocketredisnode-redis
jamyspex
jamyspex

Reputation: 77

Scaling websocket node server

I know this question has been asked partially before (How to Scale Node.js WebSocket Redis Server?) but I am wondering if there is any alternatives to redis for rapidly sharing websocket objects between node instances, specifically ws type sockets (https://github.com/einaros/ws). I've tried redis and ran into issues with the fact that the web socket objects are cyclic and difficult to serialise. I then used Crockford's cycle.js (https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/blob/master/cycle.js), however it seems to strip out the websocket objects methods, as I get an error from node saying "Object object has no method send" after I have read the socket back from redis and retrocycled it. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance, James.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3275

Answers (3)

BGPHiJACK
BGPHiJACK

Reputation: 1397

When we speak of scalability we expect or want to hear the words linear performance gains. To be honest though this is not the case most setups as their reliance on another server/service is too great and thus bottle-necks form up within the network you're trying to host for users.

As we explore options we hear things like Databases, Message Queues, and Brokers; These are fine to use but as mentioned above if reliance on any of them is far too great you will destroy your setup in sure time.

Design the WSS Server to act solo (unless requirements are exceeded). You determine and set limits and let API server know this. So if I have 10 chat-rooms and they hold maximum 100 users and benching my WSS server proved I could hold 400-500 of them. With that information I'd set 4-5 rooms per server. So if two people enter room#1 they are on WSS server#1; If all 10 chat-rooms are full then WSS server #2 is now full and 11th room will need a WSS Server#3 up to 15th room.

The slowest part of the network would now just be your API server handling requests but this may include database as well.

If your requirements are for more users than the example, you can increase core power first or add a second server with help of an MQ or Redis Pub/Sub type setup.

Unfortunately there's no way to properly sort users, so if 3 rooms had 20 users and all were sitting on WSS server#1 that'd still leave a room left with hundreds of user slots available but is this really a problem?

It's possible this room could fill right up so leave them the spot, but still could be days till they max so programming something spicy for your needs will improve how cost effective you make it.

Upvotes: 0

Dmitrii Goriunov
Dmitrii Goriunov

Reputation: 188

There is a library which allows easily scale WebSocket across node.js processes and machines, you can check out it:

https://github.com/ClusterWS/ClusterWS

Upvotes: 0

Jack Daniel's
Jack Daniel's

Reputation: 2613

IMO you should use messaging queue for that.. e.g (RabbitMQ)

  1. Application starts on Node A and Node B and connects to RabbitMQ
  2. Client A connects to Node A and subscribe to Queue named XXX Client
  3. Client B connects to Node B and subscribe to Queue named XXX
  4. Client A sendsmessage to websocket server Websocket Server sends message to Node A
  5. Node A publishes messages to RabbitMQ queue XXX
  6. Node B receives the message from RabbitMQ as it is subscribed to queue XXX
  7. Node B sends message to Client B or publishes the messages to all connected clients on node B

So, all you need is to put Messaging queue in your architecture (RabbitMQ, ZeroMQ) etc

Upvotes: 3

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