ITPEC IP April 2024 Question 16
In a web service and other services, in order to increase reliability and process a large volume of accesses from users, which of the following is a technique that links multiple computers and makes them work as if they were a single computer?
Explanation
Clustering — several computers are linked to run as one system, sharing the load and standing in for each other.
In a cluster, multiple servers (nodes) work together and appear to users as a single computer. For a web service this gives both things the question asks for:
- •Volume: a load balancer spreads the incoming accesses across the nodes, so adding nodes adds capacity
- •Reliability: if one node fails, the others carry on the service (failover)
Answer (a)
Why not others:
- •(b) Spooling — output for a slow device such as a printer is first written to disk, so the CPU can go on without waiting; it concerns one computer and its peripherals
- •(c) Buffering — data is held for a while in a memory area to absorb a difference in speed or timing between two devices or processes
- •(d) Mirroring — the same data is written to two disks (RAID 1) or two sites at once, so a copy survives a failure; it duplicates data, it does not make computers act as one
Key rule: Clustering joins computers into one system for capacity and availability; mirroring duplicates data; spooling and buffering smooth out speed differences in moving data.
System Component · AI-written, may contain errors
This question comes from an official ITPEC past paper. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with ITPEC. See the official IP past-paper collection or Report an issue.