Windows Clustering

Windows Clustering is a feature of Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server that provides multiple complementary clustering technologies.

1. Network Load Balancing clusters. Network Load Balancing clusters provide high scalability and availability for TCP/IP-based services and applications by combining up to 32 servers running Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server into a single cluster. By using Network Load Balancing to build a group of clustered computers, you can enhance the availability (measure of the fault tolerance of a computer and its programs. A highly available computer runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. See also fault tolerance.) of your Internet server programs, including Web and File Transfer Protocol (FTP), proxy, virtual private network (VPN), and streaming media servers. It also enhances the availability of Terminal Services over your corporate LAN.

   The Network Load Balancing service enables Network Load Balancing clusters. You can install the Network Load Balancing service by using Network and Dial-up Connections. For more information about Network Load Balancing clusters, see Network Load Balancing overview

   Network Load Balancing clusters can also provide load balancing for servers running COM+ applications. For more information, see Business scenarios

2. Server clusters. Server clusters provide high availability (for server clusters, the restarting of a failed application or the dispersion of the work to remaining computers when a computer or application in the server cluster fails) for applications through the failover (process of taking resources, either individually or in a group, offline on one node and bringing them back online on another node. The offline and online transitions occur in a predefined order, with resources that are dependent on other resources taken offline before and brought online after the resources upon which they depend. See also node; offline; online; resource) of resources. Server clusters focus on preserving client access to applications and system services, such as Microsoft Exchange for messaging, Microsoft SQL Server for database applications, and file services.

   Server clusters can combine up to four nodes (for tree structures, a location on the tree that can have links to one or more items below it. For local area networks (LANs), a device that is connected to the network and is capable of communicating with other network devices. See also LAN. For server clusters, a computer system running Windows 2000 Advanced Server that is an active or inactive member of a cluster. See also server cluster). Windows 2000 Datacenter Server supports up to four nodes in a cluster. Windows 2000 Advanced Server is limited to two nodes. A server cluster cannot be made up of nodes running both Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. In a three-node or four-node server cluster, all nodes must run Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. Similarly, a two-node cluster must be made up of nodes running either Windows 2000 Advanced Server, or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, but not both.

   The Cluster service enables server clusters. You can install the Cluster service using the Windows Components wizard, which is part of Windows 2000 Configure Your Server. For more information about server clusters, see Understanding server clusters

You can use these clustering technologies separately or combine them to provide scalability, manageability, and high availability for network applications. For the most current information on the Cluster service and how it works with Network Load Balancing, see Updated technical information

This information came from http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/datacenter/help/default.asp?url=/windows2000/en/datacenter/help/win_cluster.htm

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