| Clustering
is where two or more servers are configured to act as
a single system. Clustering can improve the reliability
and throughput of an Internet-based system. Troubleshooting
and determining the root cause of problems also can
be much simpler with clustering. However, clustering
requires a great deal of technical knowledge if the
system is to be properly set-up and maintained.
Clustering
Benefits
Clustering
improves the reliability of Internet-based systems because
it eliminates many of the single points of failure that
are possible in a single server system. For example,
with clustering you could have two or more web servers
supporting your Internet site. If one of the servers
fails your throughput might be impacted to some degree
but the site would still be available on the second
server. In a single server system your site would be
offline if this happened.
The
throughput of a system can be vastly improved with clustering
because you can put a load balancer in the system that
will send traffic to the least busy resource. This also
means clustering can handle huge swings in volume that
may occur during the day.
Clustering
also makes it much easier to troubleshoot systems if
properly configured. Instead of having many different
items loaded on one server you can put similar programs
on each server so it is easier to determine if a problem
is related to an application, database, bandwidth, etc.
Clustering
Issues
The
drawback to clustering is you have to know what you
are doing. Clustering done right is easily scalable
and easily maintained. Clustering configured wrong is
a nightmare you don't want to experience. |
