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Table Of Contents
Chapter 38
Steps to Plan and Configure a Deployment
Work with your host system administrators to plan your overall deployment strategy. Create a detailed list of the
machines and communication ports that your SQLFire peer and server members will use. Your deployment decisions
determine how servers and peers nd each other and distribute data in the cluster.
The following steps are high-level tasks for planning and conguring your deployment. Where necessary they provide
links to more detailed procedures.
1. For each host machine with more than one network adapter card, decide whether to use the default address or one
or more non-default bind addresses. You can use different cards for peer and server connections.
2. Identify which SQLFire servers, if any, that you want to run as standalone, isolated members, with no membership
in a cluster. Standalone servers may be sufcient for certain applications. A single server has faster startup, but no
peer-to-peer distribution of any kind.
3. For all other clustered SQLFire members:
Decide whether to use locators or a multicast address for member discovery. Locators are recommended for
production systems and required for implementing security, network partitioning management, and thin client
load balancing. Decide how many locators to use and where each locator should run.
To ensure the most stable startup and availability, use multiple locators that run on different computers. Create a
list of your locators' address and port pairs. You will use the list to congure other clustered SQLFire peers or
servers, thin client connections, and the locators themselves.
If you choose a multicast address for communication or as an alternative to locators for peer member discovery,
record the unique multicast address and port for each separate cluster.
Note: Use different port numbers for different clusters, even if you already use different multicast addresses.
Some operating systems do not separate communication between systems that have unique addresses but
the same port number.
4. Set up member discovery using either locators or multicast. See Conguring Discovery Mechanisms on page 219.
5. As needed, set up communication between multiple clusters. See Conguring Multi-site (WAN) Deployments on
page 227.
When you start SQLFire servers or peer client members, they nd and communicate with each other using methods
and addresses that you congure.
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