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Well, we have 2,460 DSPF objects in the main library for our display files. We have another 22 DSPF objects in a library that my team uses for custom applications associated with a vendor product called Infinium. I suspect other development teams have additional DSPF objects in other libraries. So let's say we have at least 2,500 DSPF objects.

Not all of these DSPF objects are still in use. And, while each DSPF object has an interactive program driving it, some interactive programs form part of a larger solution that could be part of single node app with multiple html pages. So we're not talking 2,500 node apps. But we're not talking 25 node apps either.

We've been doing 5250 green screen development with COBOL for 25 years. I have no idea how many apps we might build with node over a period of 25 years. But I want to plan for the possibility of large numbers of node apps as soon as we start using node. I don't want today's decisions to be tomorrow's limitations and pain points--at least not if I can avoid it.

Thanks,

Kelly Cookson
IT Project Leader
Dot Foods, Inc.
1.217.773.4486 ext. 12676
kcookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kevin Turner
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 4:22 PM
To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Hosting a Large Number of Node Apps on the IBM i

I think you need to define what you mean by an app, or what the scope of an app is. I cannot see a scenario where you might host thousands, or even hundreds, of separate and distinct apps on a server....unless your server is going to act like a public hosting site. Surely you don't have that many applications in your 5250 world?

Sent from my iPad

On 13 Oct 2015, at 22:07, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Nathan,

I certainly don't mind using a web server (e.g., IIS or Apache) as a reverse proxy for routing to node apps on the IBM i. I actually see a lot of advantages to this approach.

Yet, three things keep sticking in my mind with a reverse proxy approach. These things probably represent my newbie understanding more than they represent real problems. But, hey, this is how I learn...

1. What happens when the reverse proxy goes down (either because of an error or for maintenance)? If users access all of my node apps through a reverse proxy, then all of my node apps become unavailable when the reverse proxy goes down. I have never set up multiple web servers for fail-over or load balancing. Would setting up web servers for fail-over and load balancing become any more difficult if the web server is serving primarily as a reverse proxy for a lot of node apps?

2. What happens when I have a web server that functions as a reverse proxy for, say, 150 node apps--and now I want to add or modify a single reverse proxy route in the web server configuration file? Is my only option to recycle the entire web server to start using the modified configuration file? Would such a recycle be graceful for users? Or would I have to tell all users to get out of the node apps so I can recycle the web server?

3. What about all of those port numbers? If I use a reverse proxy to route requests to each of my node apps on the IBM i, then each of my node apps on the IBM i requires its own port number. If I have 500 node apps, I'll have to have them listen on 500 different port numbers. As the number of node apps grows, so does the number of port numbers used. Do I really want to have hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of port numbers being listened to? Does this create system performance, security, or maintenance issues?

Thanks,

Kelly Cookson
IT Project Leader
Dot Foods, Inc.
1.217.773.4486 ext. 12676
kcookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nathan
Andelin
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 3:25 PM
To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Hosting a Large Number of Node Apps on the IBM i

Kelly,

It's nice to see questions which are relevant to the deployment of broadly scoped systems. And I agree that the answer always seems to come back to "routing".

I'm not sure how to answer your questions about options 1 - 3, so I'll ask more questions which might provoke thought.

What would be the best tool for handling:

1. Request logging?
2. Response logging?
3. Gzip compression?
4. TLS encryption?
5. Serving static content?

One benchmark I came across showed IIS performing 2.5 times faster than Node.js while serving static content, presumably due to caching. Apache offers similar caching. Wait for a Node.js caching module? Build one yourself?

Node.js experts seem to advise the avoidance of any computationally intensive work within the main event loop. Would "computationally intensive" include the evaluation of "routing" expressions?






On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 12:32 PM, Kelly Cookson
<KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

If our shop adopts node, we would probably use it to develop web and
mobile apps instead of 5250 green screens (for future development).
Over the years, we have accumulated a large number of 5250 green
screen interactive programs. If we adopt node, I can imagine we will
accumulate a similarly large number of node apps.

The way to host a large number of node apps is, according to my
Google searches, routing. But there are different strategies for routing.

1. Use a reverse proxy to route requests to node apps, where each
node app has its own URI and port number. The reverse proxy could be
a web server or something like node-http-proxy. Redbird also appears
to be a package for setting up a reverse proxy for node apps (
https://github.com/OptimalBits/redbird?utm_source=nodeweekly&utm_medi
u
m=email
).

2. Use ExpressJS vhost to route requests to node apps, where each
node app has its own URI and port number.

3. Use ExpressJS routers and module.exports to route requests to node
sub-apps or modules (something like this: https://vimeo.com/56166857).

So, I am left with a few questions. What strategy or combination of
routing strategies would be best for ensuring high availability of
node apps? What strategy or combination of routing strategies would
be best for scaling node apps (e.g., using the cluster module)? Is
reducing the number of unique ports being listened to by node apps a
good reason for using the sub-apps strategy (option #3 above)?

Thanks,

Kelly Cookson


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