With the Cluster Edition, Sybase extends its support of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), nonclustered servers and introduces an Adaptive Server that can work in a shared-disk environment.
You can group multiple nonclustered servers to provide a single-system view of shared databases that delivers improved reliability and ease of management.
A group of loosely coupled Adaptive Servers, each of which can function as a nonclustered server, work together to provide the user with a single database system image.
The Adaptive Servers in the cluster jointly manage a single installation of Adaptive Server databases residing on shared-disk devices.
The primary advantages of the Cluster Edition architecture are:
Improved availability – the shared-disk nature of the architecture means that applications can continue to run as long as a single cluster member remains viable, even after several others have failed.
Simple management – does not require data repartition as cluster membership changes, because data is shared by all instances.
The Cluster Edition provides a distributed architecture.
Internode communication takes place via a network interconnection,
not, as with nonclustered Adaptive Server, via shared memory (high-speed
system memory). Applications that minimize internode messaging yield
the best performance in the Cluster Edition environment.
