Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) is a computer program that allows
server computers to work together as a
computer cluster
A computer cluster is a set of computers that work together so that they can be viewed as a single system. Unlike grid computers, computer clusters have each node set to perform the same task, controlled and scheduled by software.
The comp ...
, to provide
failover and increased availability of applications, or
parallel calculating power in case of
high-performance computing (HPC) clusters (as in
supercomputing
A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...
).
Microsoft has three technologies for clustering: Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS, a
HA clustering service),
Component
Circuit Component may refer to:
•Are devices that perform functions when they are connected in a circuit.
In engineering, science, and technology Generic systems
* System components, an entity with discrete structure, such as an assem ...
Load Balancing (CLB) (part of
Application Center 2000
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...
), and
Network Load Balancing Services
Network Load Balancing Services (NLBS) is a Microsoft implementation of Computer cluster, clustering and Load balancing (computing), load balancing that is intended to provide high availability and high reliability, as well as high scalability. N ...
(NLB). With the release of
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 is the fourth release of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of the operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and generally to retail on Fe ...
the MSCS service was renamed to Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC), and the
Component Load Balancing (CLB) feature became deprecated.
Prior to Windows Server 2008, clustering required (per Microsoft KBs) that all nodes in the clusters to be as identical as possible from hardware, drivers, firmware, all the way to software. After Windows Server 2008 however, Microsoft modified the requirements to state that only the operating system needs to be of the same level (such as patch level).
Background
Cluster Server was codenamed "Wolfpack" during its development.
Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition was the first version of Windows to include the MSCS software. The software has since been updated with each new server release. 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 released
Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003,
the first
high-performance computing (HPC) cluster technology offering from Microsoft.
History
During Microsoft's first attempt at development of a cluster server Microsoft, originally priced at $10,000, ran into problems causing the software to fail because of buggy software causing fail-over forcing the workload from two servers to a single server. This results in poor allocation of resources, poor performance of the servers, and very poor reviews from analysts.
The announcement of a new update to the Microsoft Cluster Server software came in 1998 promising new features in 1999 and the newest addition in the line of Windows NT software in the form of Windows NT 5.0 Enterprise Edition.
Also promising support for 4 nodes post release of NT 5.0.
Microsoft's first attempt at pushing the cluster server software was at the 2005 Super-Computing conference in Seattle the new software being developed, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (Windows CCS 2003), is still in beta.
On May 8, 2006 Microsoft reports the release of the full-featured Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (for industrial use) and the Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 R2 (for small businesses) software to the public for purchase in summer 2006.
References
External links
Microsoft Clustering Services
Cluster Server
Cluster computing
High-availability cluster computing
{{Microsoft-stub