Microsoft Cluster Server
Encyclopedia
Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) is software designed to allow servers to work together as a computer cluster, to provide failover and increased availability of applications, or parallel calculating power in case of high-performance computing (HPC)
clusters (as in supercomputing).
Microsoft has three technologies for clustering: Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS), Component Load Balancing (CLB) (part of Application Center 2000), and Network Load Balancing Services
(NLB). In Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
the MSCS service has been renamed to Windows Server Failover Clustering and the Component Load Balancing (CLB) feature has been deprecated.
was the first version of Windows server to include the MSCS software. The software has since been updated with each new Enterprise Edition server release: Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, and many new features are included in Windows Server 2008. The cluster software evaluates the resources of servers in the cluster and chooses which are used based on criteria set in the administration module. In June 2006 Microsoft also released Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, the first high-performance computing (HPC)
cluster technology offering from Microsoft.
High-performance computing
High-performance computing uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Today, computer systems approaching the teraflops-region are counted as HPC-computers.-Overview:...
clusters (as in supercomputing).
Microsoft has three technologies for clustering: Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS), Component Load Balancing (CLB) (part of Application Center 2000), and Network Load Balancing Services
Network Load Balancing Services
Network Load Balancing Services is a Microsoft implementation of clustering and load balancing that is intended to provide high availability and high reliability, as well as high scalability. NLBS is intended for applications with relatively small data sets that rarely change , and do not have...
(NLB). In Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009 and launched on October 22, 2009. According to the Windows Server Team blog, the retail availability was September 14, 2009. It is built on Windows NT 6.1, the same core...
the MSCS service has been renamed to Windows Server Failover Clustering and the Component Load Balancing (CLB) feature has been deprecated.
Background
Cluster Server was codenamed "Wolfpack" during its development. Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise EditionWindows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptive, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It was the next release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 31 July 1996...
was the first version of Windows server to include the MSCS software. The software has since been updated with each new Enterprise Edition server release: Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, and many new features are included in Windows Server 2008. The cluster software evaluates the resources of servers in the cluster and chooses which are used based on criteria set in the administration module. In June 2006 Microsoft also released Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, the first high-performance computing (HPC)
High-performance computing
High-performance computing uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Today, computer systems approaching the teraflops-region are counted as HPC-computers.-Overview:...
cluster technology offering from Microsoft.
News
External links
- MSCS Forum at Tek-Tips
- Microsoft Clustering Services