Hi,
What is a good book to learn about web server architecture? I am a beginner Rails developer and want to go beyond Ruby. For example, I want to know what exactly a 'Mongrel cluster' is, rack-middleware, HTTP, etc. Is there a good book (or more than one) which covers this?
Thanks.
Not sure about "beyond" ruby (mongrel is specific to rails) - but to learn more about deploying rails applications to your production server the book "Deploying Rails Applications: A Step-by-Step Guide" might be worth a try. They have a free chapter specifically on "managing your mongrels" which should give you a bit more information on mongrel clusters and how they are configured.
You could always check out the mongrel website for more details as well.
This blog post here is a good starting point for other deployment options. The big alternative worth noting is the Apache + passenger stack - I have been using it for a little while now and really enjoying it.
Hope this helps.
HTTP the Definitive Guide is exactly what you're looking for. Don't let the name fool you -- its more than HTTP and far from a reference book. It goes over everything you've mentioned.