How to Plan Your Server Architecture Before Deploying
Investing time in architecture planning before deploying your Breeze saves hours of migration and troubleshooting later. A well-planned architecture scales gracefully and remains maintainable.
Define Your Requirements
- Expected traffic volume and growth projections
- Storage needs for databases, uploads, and logs
- Compliance or data residency requirements
- Availability targets -- can you tolerate downtime during updates?
Single Server vs Multi-Server
For small projects, a single Breeze running your application, database, and web server is simple and cost-effective. As your project grows, consider separating concerns:
Single Breeze: Web + App + DB (simple, low cost)
Two Breezes: Web/App + DB (database isolation)
Three+ Breezes: Load Balancer + App Servers + DB (high availability)Key Architecture Decisions
- Web Server -- Nginx for static content and reverse proxy, or Apache for .htaccess support
- Database -- MySQL/MariaDB for relational data, PostgreSQL for complex queries, Redis for caching
- Storage -- local NVMe for performance, block storage for scalable volumes
- Backups -- automated snapshots plus off-server backups for disaster recovery
Security Planning
- Firewall rules -- only open ports you actively use
- SSH key authentication with password login disabled
- Separate database credentials per application
- TLS certificates for all public-facing services
Start Small, Scale Smart
Begin with a single Breeze and a clear separation of components in your configuration. When scaling becomes necessary, each component can be moved to its own Breeze with minimal changes because the architecture was planned from the start.