With the improvement of  the status of the reporting system in the enterprise information system,the pressure of which has also increased. For enterprises with large data volume, high user volume and high concurrency, how to make the reporting system stable under high-pressure environment and ensure the security and availability of the system has become a problem that enterprises have to consider. However,clusters are a good way to solve these problems.

1.What is a cluster?

If you are already familiar with the concept of clustering, you can skip this paragraph.
Simply put, a cluster is a group of computers that provide network resources to users as a whole. These individual computer systems are the nodes of the cluster.

Clusters generally have the following three key characteristics:

(1) Scalability
The performance of the cluster is not limited to a single service entity, and the new service entities can be dynamically added to the cluster to enhance the performance.

(2) High availability
When a server in a cluster cannot be used due to a failure or maintenance need, the application running on this server will be automatically taken over on the other node server.

(3) Load balancing
Load balancing can distribute tasks evenly to computing and network resources in a cluster environment,which improve data throughput.

Since the introduction of the cluster, you have to mention the distribution, many of the friends who just contacted the cluster may be stupid and can’t tell the difference between cluster and distributed.
In fact, so easy, distributed refers to the distribution of different services of the same project on multiple servers, and the cluster is deployed on the same project on multiple servers.
For both cluster and distributed deployment methods, FanRuan has a corresponding solution. This article mainly explains the new cluster features introduced by FineReport10.0 and FineBI5.0 platform.

2.Why do we have to do clustering?

With the increasing importance and frequency of reporting systems in enterprise information systems, enterprises may encounter the following situations when using a reporting system deployed on a single server:

(1) The business system requires 7*24 to run continuously, and the loss caused by the system shutdown         caused by the server downtime is huge.

2) Stand-alone systems are susceptible to various situations and data security is vulnerable.

3) In the face of high concurrency, a single server faces a long queue time.

So, facing these situations, how can we maximize the stability and availability of a reporting system?

3.the introduction of new cluster advantages

In order to solve the above problems, FanRuan has launched a cluster solution from FineReport8.0. Customers can configure a variety of load balancing cluster systems according to the solution, which basically meets the needs of enterprises for cluster systems.But the product functions have not been designed. On the decision system platform, there are also some limitations, such as insufficient adaptation to the network environment, timing synchronization between nodes, and complicated configuration.

FanRuan have always been concerned about the demands of the cluster. In the past six months, FanRuan has collected the problems encountered by customers in the use of FineReport8.0 and FineReport9.0 clusters, and investigated the needs of enterprise customers for clusters.

FineReport10.0 Version and FineBI5.0 Version release a new web cluster. The new cluster features the following features, which fundamentally solve the limitations of the old cluster solution, redesign the cluster function from the platform perspective, and truly serve the client system. Efficient and normal operation to protect the escort.

(1) High availability:

①Adopting the no-host mode, the system can still operate normally after the node is down;

②Automatically detect the status of the node. After the node is down, the other nodes are automatically       switched. The logged in user does not need to log in again;

③Clusters support all stand-alone functions.

(2) High consistency:

① Platform configuration information and resource file modification between nodes can be                               synchronized in real time;

② Intelligently detect the version files (jar packages, plug-ins, etc.) of each node.

(3) High adaptability:

①Adapting to various network environments, low dependence on the operating system;

②Nodes that can be combined with different operating systems are in the same cluster and adapt to a           variety of commonly used web servers.

(4) Simple to use:

①Platform visualization configuration, no need to modify various complex configuration files;

②Support hot deployment, increase the deletion of nodes without restarting the cluster, only need to           copy other node files;

③Real-time monitoring of the running status of each node, such as memory usage.

(5) Strong scalability:

Based on a good architectural design, the new cluster can add more storage methods and supported databases.

If your business is facing server instability and high system concurrency issues, there is no doubt that using a new cluster is an excellent solution to this type of problem. If you are using a cluster built manually based on FineReport8.0 or FineReport9.0, using the new cluster function of FineReport10.0 or FineBI5.0 will greatly improve the operation and maintenance efficiency of the enterprise.