To cluster or not

[Rama Raghavan]

Here is a scenario wrt migration from 5.1 to 7.0:
Although running multiple instances of wls(5.1), the current setup does not take into account the clustering features.
So as I move forward I may run into objects that may not be truely "distributable" (or serializable).
Long story short: "Business has accepted to retry if a request fails" (i.e. no automatic fail-over).
Should I consider:
1. Setup WLS (7.0) cluster configuration, but deploy such non-distributable apps to be targetted to individual servers, OR
2. Don't bother clustering WLS
TIA -
Rama

[Chris Mathews]

How many problems have been caused by not having a clustered solution previously?
My suggestion is to weigh the cost of setting up the cluster (in terms of time, additional license fees, increased administration resources, etc.) versus the cost of a failure.
If a failure is merely a nuisance that causes someone a bit of extra work on rare occassions then I would say you have no need for clustering, other than to be .
On the other hand, if a failure is very costly to the business then I would say the time and money would be well spent investing in clustering.