Simply, is it best practice to cluster IS and Broker across different data centers? Would it be possible? We’re planning on having a physical server on site A and another physical server on site B in a zone environment. We will want to achieve load balance, failover, and DR in this setup.
IS clusters uses tangosol coherence clustering for session handling, using multicast network traffic.
If you have clustered IS’s across datacenters, multicast use not to be allowed, and network bandwidth becomes an issue. You don’t really want all this network traffic going over data centers since you pay per bandwidth.
For the scenario you describe is better to use Broker within a territories for inter data center communication, limiting to only the needed documents.
I’ve seen 3DNS used to provide IS load balancing (and failover) between data centers. Works fine.
As DevNull points out, you’ll want to be aware of IS software cluster facilities and the impact of being in multiple data centers.
The fun part will be addressing the DB stuff that IS needs.
For Broker, you’ll probably rely primarily on OS or hardware clustering facilities in active/passive mode. I think 8 introduced some load balancing and/or failover support but I’m not sure.
Thanks Reamon and DevNull. Geographically, our data center are within the same state and stretches miles a part. Are you saying it’s okay to have IS and Broker on site A and another IS and Broker on site B and have cluster, failover, and DR capabilities?
Yes, that arrangement is fairly common IME.
The challenge can be in getting the DB and IS instances configured to do failover automatically.
Rob, what IME?
Rob, why would that be challenge? What’s the difference if you have two physical server on the same data center and having it cluster,failover?
DevNull, what’s meant by multicast network traffic?
IME = in my experience
The challenge is that the IS instances in both DCs will need to connect to the same DB. Getting IS to connect/reconnect in the face of DB failover can be a challenge.
The updated IS clustering facilities use IP multicast to communicate with each other. You can find material on the web about IP multicast.