THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY August 19, 2002 cluster computing ______________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: VeriSign - The Value of Trust
Secure all your Web servers now - with a proven 5-part strategy. The free Server Security Guide shows you how to deploy the latest encryption and authentication techniques, deliver transparent protection with the strongest security without disrupting users, and more. Get your free Guide now: http://WhatIs.com/r/0,,5053,00.htm?Verisign ______________ TODAY'S WORD: cluster computing See our definition with hyperlinks at http://search390.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid10_gci762034,00.html In computers, clustering is the use of multiple computers, typically PCs or UNIX workstations, multiple storage devices, and redundant interconnections, to form what appears to users as a single highly available system. Cluster computing can be used for load balancing as well as for high availability. Advocates of clustering suggest that the approach can help an enterprise achieve 99.999 availability in some cases. One of the main ideas of cluster computing is that, to the outside world, the cluster appears to be a single system. A common use of cluster computing is to load balance traffic on high-traffic Web sites. A Web page request is sent to a "manager" server, which then determines which of several identical or very similar Web servers to forward the request to for handling. Having a Web farm (as such a configuration is sometimes called) allows traffic to be handled more quickly. Clustering has been available since the 1980s when it was used in DEC's VMS systems. IBM's sysplex is a cluster approach for a mainframe system. Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and other leading hardware and software companies offer clustering packages that are said to offer scalability as well as availability. As traffic or availability assurance increases, all or some parts of the cluster can be increased in size or number. Cluster computing can also be used as a relatively low-cost form of parallel processing for scientific and other applications that lend themselves to parallel operations. An early and well-known example was the Beowulf project in which a number of off-the-shelf PCs were used to form a cluster for scientific applications. RELATED TERMS: load balancing http://searchwebmanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid27_gci214490,00.html high availability http://searchsystemsmanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid20_gci761219,00.html 99.999 http://searchsystemsmanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid20_gci761286,00.html Web farm http://searchwebmanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid27_gci213707,00.html VMS http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci214146,00.html sysplex http://search390.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid10_gci497625,00.html scalability http://search390.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid10_gci212940,00.html parallel processing http://search390.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid10_gci212747,00.html Beowulf http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci211652,00.html ________________________ SELECTED LINKS: A Network Computing article is called "Unraveling the Mysteries of Clustering." http://www.nwc.com/1119/1119f2.html Intelligent Enterprise offers a story, "Betting the Farm." http://www.intelligententerprise.com/010524/scalable1_1.shtml SearchWindowsManageability.com provides links to information about Windows cluster management. http://searchwindowsmanageability.techtarget.com/bestWebLinks/0,289521,sid33_tax287649,00.html ______________________ RELATED NEWS | Microsoft bids for role in cluster computing A new research program led by Cornell University and funded by the triumvirate of Microsoft Corp., Dell Computer Corp. and Intel Corp., is designed to develop high-performance clustered applications that could be used not just by scientists and academics, but also by mainstream industry customers. http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid1_gci844636,00.html ______________________ WHATIS DISCUSSION FORUM | Challenge #12: Defraggers Anthony, an end-user on a large enterprise network, began to notice a significant decrease in performance on his six-month-old Win2000/XP machine. Anthony figured he would just run his workstation's built-in defragger, but his network administrator had something else in mind. THE CHALLENGE: How often should workstations be defragged? Is a built-in defragger the best tool for the job? Who is the best person for the job? >> Take the challenge http://whatis.discussions.techtarget.com/WebX?[EMAIL PROTECTED]@.1dcfae0e/105!viewtype= ______________________ QUIZ #7 | Protocols How much do you know about IT protocols? Take our quiz and find out! http://searchsystemsmanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid20_gci558485,00.html ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] characteristic impedance of free space http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci845268,00.html [2] pixelation http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci844539,00.html [3] vertical line http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci844400,00.html [4] messaging http://searchsystemsmanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid20_gci212554,00.html [5] HDCD http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci843768,00.html ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: LOWELL THING, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ROUSE, Assistant Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___________________________________________________________________ :::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ::::::::::::::::::::: Published by TechTarget (http://www.techtarget.com) TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. 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