Windows Server 2008
Hi, I'm currently doing my MCITP. I'm a bit confused on some things. Can someone please tell me the real difference between these 3 :
1. Fault Tolerance
2. Load Balancing
3. High Availability
Thank you in advance.
October 27th, 2012 7:11am
If you are referring Hyper-V, please read following articles
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc768521(v=bts.10).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh127064.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831410.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725691.aspx
ThanksRegards, Santosh
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October 27th, 2012 2:02pm
Here's an attempt to help you better understand the terms
Fault Tolerance - This is a system's ability to withstand one or more failures whilst still able to function in its role. For example a server may have multiple power supplies. If one of the power supplies fails the server still
gets power from the others. In this case you would say the server had a Fault Tolerant power supply. Or another term commonly used is to say there is Redundancy in the power supply. Redundancy means there are more (and sometimes idle hence the
term redundant) power supplies than are needed in normal operation when everything is working. It is this Redundancy which gives it Fault Tolerance.
Load Balancing - This is the distribution of workload accross different systems. For example a web site is likely to be hosted on multiple web servers. Different mechanisms are available to then distribute the requests which come to that website
to one of the servers. Depending on the mechanism this could be to the one with the least amount of current connections etc. It can also be used to only direct traffic servers which are online and not offline so you could say it also offered some
Fault Tolerance. Not all Load Balancing technologies offer Fault Tolerance however. For example a RAID 0 disk array Load Balances the workload accross all disks in the array but if one disk fails the entire array goes down.
High Availability - This is a general term used to describe a system which must be running (i.e. available) more of the time than you would consider a normal system to be. The exact time you would consider normal and high are subjective but
it just means it is relatively more available than normal. In practical terms Fault Tolerant and in some cases Load Balancing technologies are likely to be used in order to make a system Highly Available. So this term usually means, in
some sense, the use of these technologies although not exclusively. (Fault Tolerance nearly always makes a system more available but some Load Balancing technologies do not as described above).
Hope this helps a bit and good luck with the exams
Best Regards
Joe Dunn
MCITP:EA, MCSE
October 27th, 2012 2:54pm
Hi Joe Dunn, Thank you for a clear explanation.
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October 31st, 2012 10:02pm