Computer Clustering Research 2022

Running head: COMPUTER CLUSTERING 1
Computer Clustering
Student Name
Institution Affiliation

COMPUTER CLUSTERING 2
Computer Clustering
Introduction
In the contemporary world, technology advances so fast that is has become very difficult
to keep up with modern technology trends. Information plays a crucial role in establishing and
maintaining a competitive advantage in the highly competitive business world. Cluster
computing, also referred to as high-performance computing is a framework where a bunch of
computers is connected through a local area network (LAN) to operate as a single system
(Venkataramani, Ranjan, Banerjee, and Raghunathan, 2017). The chief technology officer (CTO)
at ABC Widgets attended a technology conference where he heard about computer cluster
prompting this research. This research paper is to discuss the benefits, challenges, and potential
application of computer clusters. Computer clustering is a common practice in many
organizations due to its benefits. However, just like any other technology, it comes with some
challenges.
Server Clustering
Computer clustering is a general term used most in system engineering. Computer
clustering applications include file server clustering, data processing, load balancing, Web
hosting, and database. In this paper, we are going to concentrate on clustering servers. Server
clustering is usually done by system engineers who have the knowledge and skills on servers and
the information science concepts. Server clustering involves connecting two or more servers to
work together as a single system. Servers can be clustered as a parallel processing unit, as a load
balance system or as a failover system.
A failover cluster is a set of servers working together to maintain the high availability of
services and applications (Witt, Cooke, Everhart, Patel, and Kumar, 2018). In this case, if one of

COMPUTER CLUSTERING 3
the servers (node) fails another one take over the operation requirement of the load. This is very
important in ensuring that the end-user does not experience any downtime, thus providing system
reliability. For a failover cluster to occur a minimum of two servers must be configured together.
The cluster management is done by a separate server that sends heartbeat signals to both servers
to detect any failure. Once a fault is detected on one server, the load is transferred to the other
server to ensure high availability of services to the end-user. Server clustering can be COT or
Blade depending on the system design and requirements. COT cluster is where the servers are
physically separate while in blade cluster the servers are found on the same chassis
Advantages of Server Clustering
Server clustering has several benefits making it common among many organizations.
First, server clustering is a scalable solution (Raghunathan, 2017). Most business organizations
aim to expand their operations as they develop through time. This brings pressure on the
available resources and may quickly decrease the quality of services and products delivered.
Server clustering allows organizations to add extra resources to the cluster upon an increase in
service demand. Secondly, server clustering allows efficient maintenance and repair of servers
without disruption of service delivery to the end-users. Once a failure is detected in the cluster,
the affected server is isolated, and the load shifted to other servers. Maintenance and repair can
proceed as the end-users receive services as expected, thus ensuring service availability. Also,
clustering is an easy and reliable high availability option. It is relatively easy to configure servers
in a cluster and also the interlinking of several servers increases reliability on the system. That is
to say; clustering is the way to go for modern organizations.