Scaling Strategies

Overview

This guide covers scaling strategies for Zafira to handle increased load, users, and data as your application grows.

Horizontal Scaling

Load Balancing

• Application Load Balancer: Distribute traffic across multiple servers
• Database Load Balancing: Distribute database queries
• Session Affinity: Maintain user sessions
• Health Checks: Monitor server health

Microservices Architecture

• Service Decomposition: Break down monolithic application
• API Gateway: Centralized API management
• Service Discovery: Automatic service discovery
• Inter-service Communication: Secure service communication

Container Orchestration

• Docker: Containerize applications
• Kubernetes: Container orchestration
• Docker Swarm: Alternative container orchestration
• Service Mesh: Advanced networking for microservices

Vertical Scaling

Server Upgrades

• CPU Upgrades: Increase processing power
• Memory Upgrades: Increase available memory
• Storage Upgrades: Increase storage capacity
• Network Upgrades: Improve network performance

Database Scaling

• Read Replicas: Distribute read queries
• Master-Slave: Separate read and write operations
• Sharding: Partition data across multiple databases
• Connection Pooling: Optimize database connections

Caching Strategies

• Application Caching: Cache application data
• Database Caching: Cache database queries
• CDN: Content delivery network
• Redis Clustering: Distributed caching

Database Scaling

Read Replicas

-- Master database configuration
[mysqld]
server-id = 1
log-bin = mysql-bin
binlog-format = ROW

-- Slave database configuration
[mysqld]
server-id = 2
relay-log = mysql-relay-bin
read-only = 1

Database Sharding

// Sharding configuration
'sharding' => [
    'strategy' => 'hash',
    'shards' => [
        'shard1' => [
            'host' => 'db1.example.com',
            'database' => 'zafira_shard1'
        ],
        'shard2' => [
            'host' => 'db2.example.com',
            'database' => 'zafira_shard2'
        ]
    ]
]

Connection Pooling

// Database connection pool
'database' => [
    'pool' => [
        'min_connections' => 5,
        'max_connections' => 100,
        'idle_timeout' => 300,
        'max_lifetime' => 3600
    ]
]

Application Scaling

Queue System

// Queue configuration
'queue' => [
    'default' => 'redis',
    'connections' => [
        'redis' => [
            'driver' => 'redis',
            'connection' => 'default',
            'queue' => 'default',
            'retry_after' => 90,
            'block_for' => null,
        ]
    ]
]

Background Jobs

// Job processing
class ProcessTransactionJob implements ShouldQueue
{
    use Dispatchable, InteractsWithQueue, Queueable, SerializesModels;

    public function handle()
    {
        // Process transaction asynchronously
    }
}

Caching Implementation

// Redis caching
Cache::remember('wallet_balance_' . $walletId, 300, function () use ($walletId) {
    return Wallet::find($walletId)->balance;
});

Infrastructure Scaling

Auto Scaling Groups

# AWS Auto Scaling configuration
AutoScalingGroup:
  Type: AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup
  Properties:
    MinSize: 2
    MaxSize: 10
    DesiredCapacity: 4
    TargetGroupARNs:
      - !Ref TargetGroup
    LaunchTemplate:
      LaunchTemplateId: !Ref LaunchTemplate
      Version: !GetAtt LaunchTemplate.LatestVersionNumber

Load Balancer Configuration

# Nginx load balancer
upstream zafira_backend {
    server app1.example.com:80 weight=3;
    server app2.example.com:80 weight=3;
    server app3.example.com:80 weight=2;
    
    keepalive 32;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://zafira_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }
}

Monitoring and Metrics

Performance Metrics

• Response Time: Monitor API response times
• Throughput: Monitor requests per second
• Error Rate: Monitor error rates
• Resource Usage: Monitor CPU, memory, disk usage

Scaling Metrics

• CPU Utilization: Scale based on CPU usage
• Memory Usage: Scale based on memory usage
• Queue Length: Scale based on queue length
• Response Time: Scale based on response times

Alerting

# Prometheus alerting rules
groups:
  - name: zafira_scaling
    rules:
      - alert: HighCPUUsage
        expr: cpu_usage_percent > 80
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "High CPU usage detected"
      
      - alert: HighMemoryUsage
        expr: memory_usage_percent > 85
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "High memory usage detected"

Cost Optimization

Resource Optimization

• Right Sizing: Choose appropriate instance sizes
• Spot Instances: Use spot instances for non-critical workloads
• Reserved Instances: Use reserved instances for predictable workloads
• Auto Scaling: Scale resources based on demand

Storage Optimization

• Data Lifecycle: Implement data lifecycle policies
• Compression: Compress data to reduce storage costs
• Archival: Archive old data to cheaper storage
• Cleanup: Regular cleanup of unused data

Network Optimization

• CDN: Use CDN for static content
• Compression: Enable compression for API responses
• Caching: Implement aggressive caching
• Connection Pooling: Optimize database connections

Disaster Recovery

Backup Strategies

• Database Backups: Regular database backups
• File Backups: Regular file system backups
• Configuration Backups: Backup system configurations
• Cross-Region Backups: Backup to multiple regions

Recovery Procedures

• RTO: Recovery Time Objective
• RPO: Recovery Point Objective
• Failover Procedures: Document failover procedures
• Testing: Regular disaster recovery testing

High Availability

• Multi-AZ Deployment: Deploy across multiple availability zones
• Load Balancing: Implement load balancing
• Health Checks: Monitor application health
• Auto Recovery: Implement auto-recovery procedures

Performance Testing

Load Testing

// Load testing with Artillery
config:
  target: 'https://api.zafira.com'
  phases:
    - duration: 300
      arrivalRate: 10
    - duration: 600
      arrivalRate: 20
    - duration: 300
      arrivalRate: 10

scenarios:
  - name: "API Load Test"
    requests:
      - get:
          url: "/api/wallet/1/balance"
          headers:
            Authorization: "Bearer {{ token }}"

Stress Testing

• Breaking Point: Find the breaking point
• Resource Limits: Test resource limits
• Failure Modes: Identify failure modes
• Recovery Testing: Test recovery procedures

Capacity Planning

• Growth Projections: Project future growth
• Resource Planning: Plan resource requirements
• Cost Projections: Project scaling costs
• Timeline Planning: Plan scaling timeline

Best Practices

Scaling Guidelines

• Start Small: Begin with smaller instances
• Monitor Closely: Monitor performance metrics
• Scale Gradually: Scale gradually to avoid issues
• Test Thoroughly: Test scaling procedures

Architecture Principles

• Stateless Design: Design stateless applications
• Horizontal Scaling: Prefer horizontal over vertical scaling
• Caching: Implement caching at multiple levels
• Asynchronous Processing: Use async processing where possible

Operational Excellence

• Automation: Automate scaling procedures
• Monitoring: Implement comprehensive monitoring
• Alerting: Set up proper alerting
• Documentation: Document scaling procedures

Next Steps

• Production Deployment - Production setup
• Monitoring - Monitoring and maintenance
• Performance Optimization - Performance tuning