Build a High-Availability Cluster with DRBD & Keepalived

In production server hosting, hardware failure is not a matter of if, but when. When a single dedicated server hosting a database or core application crashes, manual recovery can take hours and result in unrecoverable data loss.

Block-Level Redundancy with DRBD
To achieve high availability without specialized SAN hardware, systems engineers leverage DRBD (Distributed Replicated Block Device). Operating as a "Network RAID 1," DRBD synchronously mirrors disk writes at the block layer over an internal private network from a Primary node to a Secondary standby node.

Automated Failover with Keepalived
DRBD guarantees data parity, while Keepalived provides automatic network failover using VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol). Keepalived manages a shared Floating Public IP. If the Primary node fails to broadcast heartbeats, Keepalived automatically:

Re-assigns the Floating IP to the Secondary node.

Promotes the Secondary DRBD device to Primary.

Mounts the replicated filesystem and brings services online.

Build your own active-passive cluster on EPY Host dedicated servers with our comprehensive tutorial.

Read the full step-by-step implementation guide:
🔗 https://www.epyhost.com/tutorials/howto/build-ha-cluster-drbd-keepalived/