3.4. Deploying Composite Active/Active Clusters

A Composite Active/Active (CAA) Cluster topology provides all the benefits of a typical dataservice at a single location, but with the benefit of also replicating the information to another site. The underlying configuration within Tungsten Cluster uses two services within each node; one provides the replication within the cluster, and the second provides replication from the remote cluster. Both are managed by the Tungsten Manager

Note

Composite Active/Active Clusters were previously referred to as Multi-Site/Active-Active (MSAA) clusters. The name has been updated to reflect the nature of these clusters as part of an overall active/active deployment using clusters, where the individual clusters could be in the same or different locations.

Whilst the older Multi-Site/Active-Active topology is still valid and supported, it is recommended that this newer Composite Active/Active topology is adopted from version 6 of Tungsten Cluster onwards. For details on the older topology, see Section 3.3, “Deploying Multi-Site/Active-Active Clustering”

The configuration is handled with a single configuration and deployment that configures the core cluster services and additional cross-cluster services.

A sample display of how this operates is provided in Figure 3.4, “Topologies: Composite Active/Active Clusters”.

Figure 3.4. Topologies: Composite Active/Active Clusters

Topologies: Composite Active/Active Clusters

The service can be described as follows:

  • Tungsten Cluster Service: east

    Replicates data between east1, east2 and east3.

  • Tungsten Cluster Service: west

    Replicates data between west1, west2 and west3.

  • Tungsten Cluster Service: west_from_east

    Defines the replication service using a secondary sub-service within the cluster. This service reads THL FROM east and writes to the relay node in west, subsequently, the replica nodes within west are then replicated to from there.

  • Tungsten Replicator Service: east_from_west

    Defines the replication service using a secondary sub-service within the cluster. This service reads THL FROM west and writes to the relay node in east, subsequently, the replica nodes within east are then replicated to from there.

Composite Dynamic Active/Active builds on the foundation of the Composite Active/Active topology and the cluster continues to operate and be configured in the same way.

The difference is, with Composite Dynamic Active/Active, the cluster instructs the Proxy layer to behave like a Composite Active/Passive cluster.