Hosting a server with multiple computers?

Hey guys,

I was wondering if there was a way to host a Bukkit server using the combined power of multiple computers? The computers I'm interested in are not connected by LAN (in fact, they're miles away from each other). I think I saw a plugin for this a while back, but that required a client mod. Is there a way to do this without that? Thanks in advance

 

That seems like an amazing idea but I don't know how to do that.

 

This wouldn't be possible without a client mod (in an efficient manner). I mean yes you could make servers connect to a main server and let each server do it's thing and then send it to main server but that's inefficient.

 

you are basically trying to cluster minecraft. As far as i know, no one has done that yet. Someone was talking about it a while ago, but I'd be surprised if they followed through on it.

However, with some of the server portal type plugins, you could split a large world across several servers (it would really be separate worlds, but you could use the same seed and copy parts of the map). however, i don't think players on different servers would be able to communicate (not sure if those plugins do that or not).

 

Thanks for the replies! Just thought it would be an interesting thing if it was out there, thanks anyways though.

 

You could run ancillary processes on separate computers, but you'd want LAN connection. Such as Mysql and map renders.

I'd prefere better threading first!

 

Did someone say clustering I've actually been working on designing a java cluster framework that could run almost any java app on specific and/or all servers and it work together. CraftBukkit is going to be the main goal now

 

I've also been wanting something like this. Clustering the servers would be one big step towards making a minecraft mmo a possibility Imagine thousands of people on one world (with properly sorted chat functions)

 

I believe @sk89q did something with a multiserver setup and cross server teleportation about a month ago.
There were problems with the inventory and the chat, I dont know if and how far he continued that.

Perhaps he could give some feedback on that project?