System information

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Last updated 2/21/2012
Chapter 8: Using Multiple Server Instances
When you use the multiserver configuration to install Adobe ColdFusion Enterprise Edition, you can use the
ColdFusion Administrator to create multiple server instances. Deploying ColdFusion on multiple server instances lets
you isolate individual applications and leverage clustering functionality.
Management of multiple server instances changed as of ColdFusion MX 7, as follows:
ColdFusion MX Use a J2EE deployment, along with J2EE application server features to deploy the ColdFusion
application on multiple instances of the J2EE application server.
Post-ColdFusion MX Use the ColdFusion Administrator in the multiserver configuration to create JRun server
instances and to automatically deploy the ColdFusion application on those instances. Additionally, you can combine
the Administrator-driven server-instance creation with the ColdFusion Administrator J2EE Archive feature to deploy
a ColdFusion application that contains all of your application’s CFM files (including CFCs and CFRs), settings
(including data source definitions), and the ColdFusion web application. For more information on J2EE Archive, see
“Packaging applications in J2EE archive files” on page 72.
About multiple server instances
The ColdFusion Administrator lets you create server instances and clusters. Additionally, you can connect to remote
JRun servers and add them to clusters.
Running multiple instances of ColdFusion has the following advantages:
Application isolation You deploy an independent application to each server instance. Each server instance has
separate settings and, because each server instance runs in its own Java Virtual Machine (JVM), problems that one
application encounter have no effect on other applications.
Clustering (load balancing and failover) You deploy the same application to each server instance and add the instances
to a cluster. The web server connector optimizes performance and stability by automatically balancing load and by
switching requests to another server instance when a server instance stops running.
The multiserver configuration is a specialized J2EE configuration that installs JRun and deploys ColdFusion as an
expanded Enterprise Application Archive (EAR) in the cfusion JRun server. The cfusion server is the only server that
can create servers and clusters. The JRun instance creation and clustering options in the ColdFusion Administrator
are not available in the server configuration, nor are they available in the J2EE configuration, even if you deploy
ColdFusion on JRun.
Note: You can also manually deploy ColdFusion on multiple server instances, using the server creation and deployment
facilities of your J2EE application server. For more information, see the ColdFusion documentation.
Expanded archive considerations
ColdFusion must run from an expanded directory structure. The Instance Manager expands the EAR or WAR file
automatically and then deploys the expanded directory structure into the new server instance.
For more information on deploying ColdFusion in the J2EE configuration, see Installing ColdFusion.