EN
CN
Server clustering and load balancing are related but different concepts that are often used together to improve the performance, availability, and scalability of a system.
Server cluster:
Definition: A server cluster is a collection of multiple server instances that together provide the same service or application. These servers can be deployed in the same data center or in different geographical locations.
Working principle: When a client request reaches the cluster, the request can be distributed to any server in the cluster. Each server handles part of the request independently, and together they form an overall service.
Advantages: Improve system availability, fault tolerance and performance. If one server fails, other servers can continue to provide services.
Load balancing:
Definition: Load balancing is a technology for distributing network or application traffic to ensure that the load on different servers is evenly distributed. It can distribute load within a server cluster or across multiple data centers.
Working principle: The load balancer (Load Balancer) receives client requests and distributes the requests to available servers based on some algorithms (such as polling, minimum number of connections, etc.).
Advantages: Improve system performance, scalability and reliability. The load balancer can dynamically adapt to traffic changes and distribute requests to servers with lower loads to prevent a certain server from being overloaded.
Although load balancers are commonly used in server clusters, they are not exactly the same concept. Load balancing is a mechanism for handling traffic, while a server cluster is an architecture consisting of multiple servers. In practical applications, they are often used together to build high-performance and high-availability systems.
Generally speaking, server clustering focuses on building an overall system composed of multiple servers, while load balancing focuses on how to effectively distribute traffic to improve performance and availability.
