Is Windows PC Clustering possible?

[RZA]

I have been searching around on the internet and i cant seem to find anything concrete so i'll ask here.

What im trying to accomplish (if possible) is clustering on windows PC's e.g. Win7, WinXP. What i would like specifically is a high availability cluster meaning active/standby or active/active. Im not interested in parallel or grid computing so that kind of cluster does not appeal to me and i know that's possible using linux but i want a windows setup.

So is there an application out there that allows for high availability clustering of windows PC's?

[techie2000]

Windows server has a clustering service (2003 / 2008) in the Enterprise Edition. I am not sure if it is in any other editions.

If you are talking about clustering Windows XP,that's not practical. The only way it could be possible would be to create a VM Ware cluster on all the PCs and then build an XP image.

[RZA]

I'm already familiar with the clustering service in server 2003. I have some critical apps running on Win7 and just wanted to know if a 3rd party app offers cluster service on a windows pc platform. If its not available then i'll just have to work with what i have but i was hoping someone knew of something out there.

[redbwoy]

I don't think Windows has anything that is native to do that. Maybe there is a software out there but that feature is only available in their Server Products.

[techie2000]

is it a possibility to run these apps in a server environment and use the cluster service? or are you looking at the cost?

If you really need a HA solution, you could implement something with load balancers. but you could spend a few thousand on hardware/software.

[RZA]

Its possible to run SOME of them in a server environment however cost is a major factor hence im really looking a 3rd party app just in case the worst happens and the system goes down. I have daily backups which are stored on a raid setup & also duplicated to another storage box so the data is not the issue. Im concerned about component failure cuz a backup is no good if your p/s or motherboard is shot.
I guess i'll just have to get similar hardware and clone the boot disk, if the main system goes down then downtime would only be the time spent to boot the backup system