= m. Th = wrote:

> Hi,
>
> This is a draft about Firebird clustering, feel free to read and
> comment.

I look forward to reading this. An initial comment, however, is that it
would be useful to explain the problem that you want clusters to solve.
It is probably obvious to you, but it isn't to everyone. Among the
possibilities are:

1. High availability (my guess is that this is your goal)
2. High throughput
3. I bought one that I need to justify to my boss
4. I need to justify a cluster to my become he'll let me buy one
5. I really need a PhD in computer science
6. I need something sexy for a grant proposal

Clustering in itself isn't a goal. DEC got into clusters for two
reasons: Tandem scared them out of their minds, and CPU engineering was
unable to build a fast VAX. Neither of there justifications had
"legs". MySQL's cluster product, on the other hand, was designed
specifically to run inside of a cell phone switch.

Making the requirement an explicit part of a proposal tends to keep a
project on track towards a stated goal.

As the first person to implement a cluster based database design
(Rdb/ELN), I've rather lost faith in cluster technology. Like invading
other countries, it looks good on paper, but the details and
implementation ramifications makes achieving the stated goal very difficult.