Specifications

CHAPTER 7 High-Availability Configurations with VMware GSX Server
197
Overview of Clustering with GSX Server
GSX Server clustering capabilities are ideally suited for development, testing and
training applications.
Note: Always rigorously test and review your cluster before deploying it in a
production environment.
This section includes:
• Applications That Can Use Clustering on page 198
• Clustering Software in Virtual Machines on page 198
Clustering is providing a service via a group of servers to get high availability,
scalability or both.
For example:
• In a Web server cluster where the Web site serves static content, a gateway
distributes requests to all nodes according to load. The gateway also redirects
requests to remaining nodes if one crashes.
This configuration increases availability and performance over a single-machine
approach. Network Load Balancing in Windows 2000 provides such a service.
• In a more complex cluster, a single node might serve a database. If that node
crashes, it must restart the database on another node. The database application
knows how to recover from a crash. In normal operation, other nodes run other
applications.
Microsoft Cluster Service and Veritas Cluster Service provide such a service.