Best High Availability Cluster Software
High-availability clusters (HA clusters or fail-over clusters) are groups of computers that support server applications with minimal downtime. They use high availability software to harness redundant computers in clusters, providing continued service when system components fail. Without clustering, if a server hosting an application crashes, the application becomes unavailable until the server is repaired. HA clustering addresses this by detecting faults and immediately restarting the application on another system without administrative intervention, a process known as failover. The clustering software may configure the node before starting the application, such as importing and mounting file systems, configuring network hardware, and running supporting applications.
HA clusters are commonly used for critical databases, network file sharing, business applications, and customer services like e-commerce websites. They aim to eliminate single points of failure through redundancy, including multiple network connections and redundantly connected data storage via storage area networks.
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FAQs of High Availability Cluster Software
It’s a program that allows multiple servers or nodes to be linked together as a unified cluster, ensuring application availability if one component fails.
High-availability clusters are servers grouped together to function as a unified system, commonly referred to as failover clusters. These clusters share a common storage infrastructure but utilize separate networks. Their primary mission is to run the same workloads as the primary system they support.
Some of the best High Availability Cluster Software options include:
- Windows Server Failover Clustering
- IBM PowerHA SystemMirror
- Veritas InfoScale
- Percona XtraDB Cluster
- SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension
- NetApp MetroCluster
- Oracle Real Application Clusters
- Red Hat Cluster Suite
- HPE Serviceguard
Leading solutions in the Cluster Management software category include Kubernetes, Veritas Cluster Server, and Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations. You can explore a comprehensive list of Cluster Management tools available in the market.
Clustering offers improved scalability by distributing the workload across multiple nodes, resulting in horizontal scaling. This approach may be more suitable for organizations with tens of thousands of developers. In High Availability (HA), the scale of the appliance relies solely on the primary node, and the workload is not distributed to the replica server.