Clustering Questions

What Is Clustering?

Clustering is a way for several servers to act as one. One InterWorx Control Panel server acts as the Cluster Manager, and the other InterWorx servers are set as Nodes. By default, the nodes mount the /home partition of the Cluster Manager, but using an external NFS device is also an option. When a web request is made, it will be load balanced across all of the servers, according to the IP-based load balanced policies.

What are the benefits of clustering?

The chief benefit of clustering is that there are the resources of several servers working as one. It is possible to use the load balancing policies to separate different services to different nodes in the cluster, as well. The most common use for clustering is to combine the resources of several servers to power one or more popular and/or processor intensive sites, and to improve availability.

Are there any drawbacks of clustering?

Given the nature of clustering, there is some increased complexity, vs a single server solution. However, we work very hard to minimize this complexity to make the experience as painless as possible, and the benefits can more than make up for it.

Does InterWorx Control Panel support High Availability (HA) Clusters?

No, not at this time. The Cluster Manager will always be a single point of failure.

Will InterWorx Control Panel Clustering work with a NAT setup?

The clustering/load balancing setup for InterWorx Control Panel servers will work in NAT’d setup, however, it must be a static NAT, where there is a one-to-one correspondence between external and internal IP’s.

With clustering, does each server need its own InterWorx license?

Yes, since each server (Cluster Manager and Node) has a copy of InterWorx Control Panel installed, each needs its own unlimited domain license.

Can I add and remove Nodes to the cluster, transparently?

Yes. The end user will not see any difference, assuming the resource load on the cluster would not overwhelm the remaining nodes.