[thelist] Firewalls vs. Web Databases

[J. Blanchard]

Good morning!

Yesterday I was approached by our network admin concerning our firewall and what would happen in the event it went down. We do not have a "high-availability" firewall (budgeted for much later this year), our web server sits "behind" the firewall, and if the FW goes down no one would be able to access the web site(s). Can we move the web server "outside" the firewall he asks? Yes I say, but the database server will still be behind the firewall, if the firewall goes down the data that drives the site will be unavailable.

I ran through a number of possible solutions, some of which are very expensive. At the very least we could "move" the web server, assign an IP to the data server (for remote database access), and pray that the firewall holds up. If we are praying for that then why move the web server at all? If the FW goes down the data is not accessible.

We could "move" the web server, install data server software on the web server, replicate things needed for the site to the web server and then have a combo box sitting outside of the firewall. Since our site is not the most heavily trafficed this may work for a while, but I can see problems ahead. 

Or third, we could establish a data server outside of the firewall with the web server, replicate needed items from inside the firewall for the database, and create a subnet between the servers.

Has anyone here had this experience? I would appreciate any guidance...

TIA

Jay Blanchard
Web Development Manager
Thermon Manufacturing Company
1.800.820.HEAT x327

<tip>The quickest way to place a NULL in a SQL data cell is Control + 0</tip>
___________________________________________________________________________
Visit http://www.visto.com.
Find out  how companies are linking mobile users to the 
enterprise with Visto.