Windows 2000 Clustering

Microsoft Windows^® 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter Server operating systems enable organizations to deploy business-critical e-commerce and line-of-business applications on industry-standard PC hardware. Clustering technologies are key tools in making this possible.

Clustering refers to linking individual servers physically and programmatically and coordinating communication between them so they can perform common tasks. Should any one server stop functioning, a process called failover automatically shifts its workload to another server to provide continuous service. In addition to failover, some forms of clustering also employ load balancing, which enables the computational workload to be distributed across a network of linked computers.