CLUSTERS

Clustering basics
All the servers in an IBM® Lotus® Domino™ cluster continually communicate with each other to keep updated on the status of each server and to keep database replicas synchronized. Each server in a cluster contains cluster components that are installed with the Lotus Domino Enterprise server or the Lotus Domino Utility server. These components, and the Administration Process, perform the cluster management and monitoring tasks that run the cluster and let you administer the cluster. The components keep replica databases synchronized, and they communicate with each other to ensure that the cluster is running efficiently and smoothly. They also let you set limits for workload balancing, track the availability of servers and databases, and add servers and databases to the cluster.

To take advantage of failover and workload balancing, you distribute databases and replicas throughout the cluster. You do not need a replica of every database on every server. The number of replicas you create for a database depends on how busy the database is and how important it is for users to have constant access to that database. For some databases, you may not need to create any replicas; for others, you may need to create multiple replicas.