What are the differences between the load balancing of a Cluster and that of Osagent?
Both Cluster and Osagent provide Round Robin load balancing facility. But they are of very different nature. You get load balancing from Osagent for free. When a server startups, it registered itself automatically with the Osagent and this in turn allows Visibroker to provide an easy but proprietary way for the client to get a reference to the server. However, all these automation comes at a price. You have no choice in determining what constitutes a group and the members of a group. Osagent makes all the decisions for you. This is where a Cluster comes in to provide an alternative. It provides a programmatic way to define, create and the properties of a Cluster. You are allowed to define the criterion to impose on a Cluster and full flexibility in choosing the members of a Cluster. Though the criterion is fixed at creation time, the client can add or remove members from the Cluster throughout its lifetime.
