Question

For computer-clusters with shared-disks, discuss some of the advantages that have made these configurations as popular as they have become, aside from the obvious data sharing and load balancing advantages.

Answer 1

Computer clusters with shared-disks offer advantages such as fault tolerance, high-performance computing, scalability, ease of maintenance, and upgradeability, aside from data sharing and load balancing.

Step-by-step explanation:

Computer clusters with shared-disks offer several advantages beyond data sharing and load balancing. One significant benefit is fault tolerance, where the system is designed to continue operating even if one or more nodes fail. This resilience is crucial for maintaining service availability and preventing downtime in critical applications. Another advantage is the facilitation of high-performance computing, enabling complex calculations and processes to be distributed across multiple nodes, increasing the speed and efficiency of computational tasks.

Scalability is also a key benefit, with clusters allowing the system to grow by adding more nodes as the performance demand increases. Lastly, ease of maintenance and upgradeability are notable advantages. With shared disk configurations, upgrading storage capacity or replacing faulty components can often be done without significant system interruptions, thus ensuring a more consistent user experience.