Scalability is another benefit of PRIMECLUSTER. Scalability is provided by the cluster's ability to grow in computing capacity when demand increases. There are two basic types of applications relative to scalability. These types of applications can be divided as follows:
Applications that interact closely with the cluster software and are designed for a distributed environment
Applications that are not aware of the cluster
Applications that interact with cluster software
An example of a scalable application that interacts with cluster software is Oracle 9iRAC. Oracle 9iRAC starts an instance of the database server on some or all the nodes of the cluster. In addition, Oracle 9iRAC interacts with the cluster software to send messages between the instances on different nodes and must know about the state of the nodes in the cluster.
Applications that are not aware of the cluster
Applications that do not have special provisions for distributing their work in the cluster can be replicated on different nodes. If the application is designed so that different users can run separate copies of the application on a single computer, then this effect can be extended to distribute the workload to the nodes of the cluster by using Global File Services (hereinafter GFS).
See
For details on GFS, see the section "2.3 PRIMECLUSTER components" and the manuals for "PRIMECLUSTER Global File Services Configuration and Administration Guide."
