[Zope] ANNOUNCE: Pound - reverse proxy and load balancer - v0.10

[Robert Segall]

This is to announce the release of Pound v0.10.

New in this release:

- added required/disallowed headers matching in groups
- configurable cyphers/strength for SSL
- retry request on discovering dead back-end
- configurable logging facility
- added configure script
- fixed bug in multiple requests per connection (GROUP matching)
- (re)fixed missing '~' in URL matching
- fixed bug in reading certificate/private-key file

What is Pound (from the Web page)

- a reverse-proxy: it passes requests from client browsers to one or more 
back-end servers.
- a load balancer: it will distribute the requests from the client browsers 
among several back-end servers, while keeping session information.
- an SSL wrapper: Pound will decrypt HTTPS requests from client browsers and 
pass them as plain HTTP to the back-end browsers.
- an HTTP/HTTPS sanitizer: Pound will verify requests for correctness and 
accept only well-formed ones.
- an HTTP/1.1 to 1.0 proxy.
- a fail-over-server: should a back-end server fail, Pound will take note of 
the fact and stop passing requests to it until it recovers.
- a request redirector - it will pass client requests to separate groups of 
servers, based on required URL and the presence or absence of headers 
(pattern matching)

Pound was specifically developed to serve as a front-end for multiple 
instances of Zope running on top of a common ZEO storage, but can be used 
with any other web server. A patch for the Python source of z2.py is 
available as part of the distribution to allow using Pound's SSL capabilities.

Pound is currently in use in several mdeium to large volume sites and seems 
to be holding up quite well. The speed is well superior to other, equivalent 
solutions, the configuration is much simpler and the necessary resources 
(CPU, RAM, disk) are much, much lower.

For further information, download, etc. please see http://www.apsis.ch/pound

The software is at version 0.10 (beta quality). Further testing (especially 
under heavy loads), improvements and suggestions are welcome.

Pound is distributed under the GPL.

Enjoy and let me know how it works for you.
-- 
Robert Segall
Apsis GmbH
Postfach, Uetikon am See, CH-8707
Tel: +41-1-920 4904