Comparing Clustering Solutions offered by Microsoft, Novell, Unix and Linux


***This page is currently under construction***

The table shows a comparison between the different OSs and their respective clustering solutions.

Management - Availability - Scalability - Processes - Services - Hardware - Other

Feature: Management
MSCS NT4
Win2k Clustering
Netware CS
NonStop Cluster SCO UNIX
Unixware 7
TurboCluster Linux
Single System Interface
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Single Management Console
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Cluster-wide root file system
No
No
Yes
(NDS)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Cluster-wide sharing of devices
No
(shared-nothing model)
No
(shared-nothing model)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Addition of nodes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Single virtual IP address, or separate IP addresses
Per resource group
CS: Per resource group
NLB: Primary and dedicated IP address1
Single virtual
Yes
Yes
Single virtual
Cluster Configuration Database
Yes
Yes
NDS Cluster Objects
No (root)
No (root)
No
(in /etc/cluster.d/)
Dependency tree
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Feature: Availability
MSCS NT4
Win2k Clustering
Netware CS
NonStop Cluster SCO UNIX
Unixware 7
TurboCluster Linux
Fault tolerant clusters with HA nodes
No
CS:No
NLB: Yes
No
N/A2
Yes
Yes
Level of failover
Resource or resource group
CS: resource(group)
NLB: host
Service/application or device
File system, kernel, application, node
Node, application or device
Node, application/service or device
SANs
No
N/A
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes?
Shared disk model
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Dynamic assignment and reassignment of server storage
No
N/A
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feature: Scalability
MSCS NT4
Win2k Clustering
Netware CS
NonStop Cluster SCO UNIX
Unixware 7
TurboCluster Linux
Supported number of nodes
2
CS Advanced: 2
CS Datacenter: 4
NLB: 32
8
6
6
>2
Maximum number of nodes
2
CS Advanced: 2
CS Datacenter: 4
NLB: 32
12
12
24
unlimited
Scalable
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Expandable
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feature: Processes
MSCS NT4
Win2k Clustering
Netware CS
NonStop Cluster SCO UNIX
Unixware 7
TurboCluster Linux
Application operation can operate cluster-unaware and capable of failover
No
No
N/A
Yes
Yes
Yes
Active process migration
Yes (push)
Yes (push)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
(Dynamic) Load balancing
No
CS: No
NLB: Yes (manual)
Yes (manual)
Yes (load leveling)
Yes
Yes
System V IPC (or similar)
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Parallel server applications
No
CS: No
NLB: Yes??
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Pinning a process to a node
N/A
Yes
No
Yes
N/A
Yes
Database recovery
No
CS: No?
NLB: relogon
Yes
relogon
N/A
Yes
Split Brain Detection
No
No
Yes
N/A
N/A
Yes
(cluster deamon algorithm)
Membership agreement protocol
Yes
Yes
Yes
(GIPS)
Yes (spawndeamon)
Yes (spawndeamon)
Yes
(via ICMP)
Easy process migration
N/A
N/A
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feature: Services
MSCS NT4
Win2k Clustering
Netware CS
NonStop Cluster SCO UNIX
Unixware 7
TurboCluster Linux
Membership Management
Event processor + Membership Manager
CS: Event processor + Membership Manager
NDS
Cluster membership services
Yes
ATM / mon deamon onload balancer
Cluster-wide swap service
No
No
No
Yes
N/A
No
EPS
Event processor + Network Manager
CS: Event processor + Communications Manager
No
Yes
No
No
Transparent client reconnect
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Migration trustee rights
Yes
Yes
Yes
N/A
N/A
N/A
Feature: Hardware
MSCS NT4
Win2k Clustering
Netware CS
NonStop Cluster SCO UNIX
Unixware 7
TurboCluster Linux
RAID support
up to RAID level 5
up to RAID level 5
up to RAID level 5
RAID level 1
Certified RAID systems
RAID level 5
Hotplug PCI
No
Yes
Yes
N/A
No
N/A
I2O
No
Yes
Yes
N/A
Yes
N/A
64 bit hardware
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SMP
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feature: Other
MSCS NT4
Win2k Clustering
Netware CS
NonStop Cluster SCO UNIX
Unixware 7
TurboCluster Linux
Suitable in heterogenous environment
No
CS: No
NLB: "Yes" (with NT4)
Yes
N/A
No
Yes
1.CS = Cluster Service with win2k Advanced Server or Datacenter Server. NLB = Network load Balancing
2. N/A = Information is not available or the feature is not applicable to the OS.