In this guide, the term clustering
is used in two different ways:
Filr-Clustering:
Multiple Filr appliances store common configuration settings and data in the same, mutually accessible storage location. Each appliance accesses the storage through a mount point named /vashare. The dialogs used to configure Filr to use shared storage refer to this as clustering.
Shared storage provides fault tolerance and high availability in the sense that, if one Filr appliances goes down, other Filr appliances have access to the same settings and data.
This guide refers to shared storage configurations as Filr-clustering.
Of course, shared storage locations themselves are neither fault-tolerant protected nor highly available unless traditional cluster services are utilized. This leads to the second usage of clustering or traditional clustering as it is referred to in this guide.
Traditional Clustering: In an enterprise environment, fault tolerance and high availability are important for the shared storage that Filr appliances access. The MySQL server and database that Filr appliances access should be protected as well.