How Clustering Works

The Cortex clustering page.

Once you get enough game servers going you can exceed the resources of a single server and need another server to keep going. To help game administrators manage multiple physical servers Cortex sports a clustering feature. Clustering is how Cortex servers communicate amongst each other. Once two or more servers are clustered Cortex can set up any engine, instance, news post, skin, user, or anything else Cortex controls on any server in that cluster. This gives the administrator the ability to manage multiple Cortex servers from a single web interface on any of the servers in his cluster. Clustering is a web style of communication as opposed to a series of master-slaves relationships. If one server goes down the cluster will still function, and once the downed server comes back up it will naturally re-integrate itself into the cluster.

Clustering is handled by the clustering page. It's meant to give you a quick rundown of the servers in your cluster and the state of your cluster. Each server is marked with an icon representing whether it is running the Windows or RedHat Linux operating systems. The name and location of the server matches what you entered when you first set up Cortex on your server. Simple hardware and instance states are listed on each server. If you need to log into Cortex on that server itself then a link is provided for you.

Cortex adds the word "Localhost" to the name of the server in the cluster that you're currently logged into.

Creating a Cluster

An individual Cortex server is essentially a cluster containing one server. When adding a cluster the two servers exchange clustering information, adding each other's servers on their cluster, creating a larger cluster.	Creating a two node cluster.
Adding a third node.	Adding a fourth node.

The bottom of the clustering page contains the form to add a server into your cluster. Simply enter the IP address of the system and the Cortex admin account password for that server and click the Link button. The servers will contact each other and add themselves into each others cluster.

This feature can be used to merge two Cortex clusters together. Add the IP of any server on your remote cluster into the form on a server in your local cluster and click Link to have the two clusters merge into one larger cluster.

Merging two clusters.

Removing Servers From Your Cluster

Click the Unlink icon next to the server you want to remove from the cluster. Cortex will break the clustering link and return the server to a standalone state.

Removing a server from the cluster only drops the communications link between that server and the Cortex cluster. All remote instances, users, skins, news posts, etc still exist on the server.